Pullman P. C. Co. v. State

Citations

• 64 Tex. 274

Syllabus

<p>1. Occupation tax — Constitution construed.— Construing that portion of the act of March 24, 1881 (Gen. Laws, p. 85), which undertakes to impose on “ every firm, person or association of persons, owning or running any palace, sleeping or dining-room cars not owned by the railroad company in this state,” an annual tax of $2 per mile, etc., held:</p> <p>(1) The tax contemplated is not a tax on property, which under the constitution must be taxed in proportion to value; nor is it a tax on persons, which must be uniform on the same class of subjects, to be legal.</p> <p>(2) It is an occupation tax.</p> <p>(3) By its terms the act applies to three classes of persons, viz.; 1st, to the owner of a car who runs it, or permits it to be run, on a railway; 2d, to others, not the owners of the railway or cars, who run them; 3d, to railway companies or others, who run such cars on their own roads, and as to whom the law imposes no tax.</p> <p>(4) The subject of an occupation tax is the thing or business done; and, so far as regards the business of running a Pullman sleeping car, it is the same whether the car be run by the owners of the railway, and belongs to them, or be run and owned by those who have no interest in the railway. It results, that a tax imposed on one running a sleeping car over the railway of another, when the same law exempts from tax the act of running the same description of cars over the road of the car owner, is not a tax equal and uniform, but is violative of the constitution, and cannot be collected.</p> <p>(5) The fact that the railway company which owns and runs .its own sleeping cars, over its own road, pays an ad valorem tax, cannot affect the question.</p> <p>(6) Nor can the constitutional requirement in reference to occupation taxes be evaded by the fact that one pursuing the occupation pays an income tax. Neither can it be evaded on account of the fact that an occupation tax is paid by the party on a business kindred to that for pursuing which