Commonwealth v. Westinghouse Air-Brake Co.

Citations

• 251 Pa. 12
• 95 A. 807
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 629

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Taxation—Capital stoch tax — Valuation—Property outside Slate — Property engaged in manufacturing — Investments.</p> <p>1. No state has the power to tax tangible property permanently located beyond its jurisdiction, no matter under what guise it may undertake to do it. The power of the legislature to impose a tax is limited to persons, property and business within the jurisdiction of the State.</p> <p>2. Where a corporation, for business or legal reasons, finds it necessary to incorporate companies in other states in order to conduct business there, and owns all the stock in such companies, it is to be deemed the owner of the properties belonging to such companies and located outside of Pennsylvania, for purposes of valuing its capital stock for taxation; but where a domestic corporation owns only a limited number of shares of capital stock of a foreign corporation, it is not thereby made the owner of personal property or real estate permanently located outside the State and is not entitled to a deduction for the value of the shares so held.</p> <p>3. The fact that a corporation owns stock or bonds which it has acquired with a view to aiding its manufacturing business in Pennsylvania, is no ground for a contention that property so owned is actually engaged in manufacturing in Pennsylvania and therefore exempt from taxation.</p>