Kirkpatrick's Estate

Citations

• 275 Pa. 271
• 119 A. 269
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 493

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Transfer inheritance tax — Nature of tax — Deduction of federal inheritance tax — Act of June 20, 1919, P. L. 521 — Uniformity.</p> <p>1. The inheritance transfer tax of June 20,1919, P. L. 521, does not impose a tax on property, but requires payment from the estate of a decedent for the right of succession or the privilege of receiving at death the property possessed by decedent.</p> <p>2. In computing a transfer inheritance tax under the Act of June 20, 1919, on the estate of a Pennsylvania decedent, the sum paid to the federal government as an estate tax cannot be deducted, inasmuch as the legislature intended this tax should be based on the clear value of the estate before deducting the federal tax.</p> <p>3. The requirement that the federal tax shall not be deducted from the value of the estate in determining the state tax, does not involve lack of uniformity, for all estates are classed exactly alike.</p> <p>4. The Act of June 20,1919, is not to be declared unworkable, because there is no provision as to how the charge may be worked out among the several legatees, distributees and residuary claimants.</p> <p>5. The right of the state to create a right to inherit, and the right to demand an excise for such right of inheritance, cannot be legislated out of existence or interfered with simply because the federal government sees fit to levy a graduated tax on the same subject of taxation — a state-created right.</p> <p>6. The subject of the tax imposed by the Act of June 20, 1919, is not a matter of concurrent legislation, and may be taken away by the State, leaving the federal government without this subject to tax.</p> <p>Mr. Justice Frazer dissented.</p>