Mitchell v. City of Meridian

Citations

• 67 Miss. 644

Syllabus

<p>1. Privilege Tax. Attempt to evade. Change in form of business.</p> <p>Privileges are taxed in reference to the known course of business. The tax cannot be evaded by changes in the mere form of transacting the business, or by parcelling out among several persons the duties usually pertaining to one.</p> <p>2. Same. Sewing machine agency. Code 1880, § 585.</p> <p>A sewing machine company rented a building at Meridian, where it sent sewing machines for distribution among its agents, who sold them to customers in the vicinity. It employed a clerk to look after the machines and deliver them to the agents, and they reported sales to an agency in Mobile, Ala. Appellant did not sell machines, and he had no part or control in the contracts between the company and its agents and customers, but he was in charge of the business of the company at Meridian. His main duty was to collect the claims for machines sold, such claims being sent him from Mobile. Only a privilege tax of $5, imposed “on each sewing machine agent,” was paid. Held, that he was punishable for the failure to pay a tax of $25, imposed by the city “on each agency for sewing machines.”</p>