Finnen's Estate

Citations

• 196 Pa. 72
• 46 A. 269
• 1900 Pa. LEXIS 473

Syllabus

<p>Decedents' estates — Collateral inheritance lax — Charities—Taxation.</p> <p>The collateral inheritance tax upon a charitable bequest is not a tax within the meaning of the constitution and the act of assembly exempting- from taxation purely public charities.</p> <p>The collateral tax is not a tax upon the property or money bequeathed, but a diminution of the amount that otherwise would pass under the will, and hence that which the legatee really receives is not taxed at all. It is that which is left after the tax has been taken off.</p> <p>There is a radical difference between the levying of a tax upon the specific property of a legatee after it has become vested in possession, and imposing a charge or tax upon the right to have the property by way of succession to the estate of a decedent.</p>