TAX: A forced burden, charge, exaction, imposition, or contribution assessed in accordance with some reasonable rule of
apportionment by authority of a sovereign state upon the persons or property within its jurisdiction to provide public revenue
for the support of the government, the administration of the law, or the payment of public expenses. 51 Am J1st Tax § 3.
Any payment exacted by the state or its municipal subdivisions as a contribution toward the cost of maintaining
governmental functions, where the special benefit derived from their performance is merged in the general benefit. State ex
rel. Fargo v Wetz, 40 ND 299, 168 NW 835, 5 ALR 731. A charge upon persons or property imposed by or under authority
of the legislature for public purposes. Yosemite Lumber Co. v Industrial Acci. Com. 187 Cal 774, 204 P 226, 20 ALR 994.
Taxes are the enforced proportional contribution of persons and property, levied by the authority of the state for the support
of the government and for all public needs, and so long as there exist public needs just so long exists the liability of the
individual to contribute thereto. The obligation of the individual to the state is continuous and proportioned to the extent of
the public wants. Patton v Brady, 184 US 608, 619, 46 L Ed 713, 719, 22 S Ct 493.
A tax is not regarded as a debt in the ordinary sense of the term, for the reason that a tax does not depend upon the consent of
the taxpayer, and there is no express or implied contract to pay taxes. Taxes are not contracts between party and party, either
express or implied; they are the positive acts of the government, through its various agents, binding upon the inhabitants and
enforceable against them without reference to their personal or individual consent to be bound. Tax Com. v National
Malleable Casting Co. 1 I 1 Ohio St 117, 144 NE 604, 35 ALR 1448.
The word "taxes," as used in the priority provision of the Bankruptcy Act, is not to be construed in a limited sense, but as
including all obligations imposed by the State or Political Subdivisions under their respective powers for governmental
or public purposes. It includes any pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property for the purpose of supporting the
government or undertakings authorized by it, irrespective of the name given the imposition, or the method of collection. No
distinction is observed between impositions under the police power and impositions under the taxing power. 9 Am J2d Bankr
§ 543.
The difference between a tax and a penalty is sometimes difficult to define, and yet the consequences of the distinction in the
required method of their collection often are important. Where the sovereign enacting the law has power to impose both tax
and penalty, the difference between revenue production and mere regulation maybe immaterial, but not so when one
sovereign can impose a tax only, and the power of regulation rests in another. They do not lose their character as taxes
because of the incidental motive. But there comes a time in the extension of the penalizing features of the so-called tax when
it loses its character as such and becomes a mere penalty, with the characteristics of regulation and punishment. Bailey v
Drexel Furniture Co. 259 US 20, 66 L Ed 817, 42 S Ct 449. See Special Assessment.
LIEU TAXES: Taxes on transportation or communication companies measured by the amount of their gross receipts,
imposed in lieu of all other taxes upon the property of such concern or in lieu of taxes on certain classes of their
property, such as that necessary to the carrying on of the business for which they were organized. Anno: 80 ALR 261, 277279.
SPECIAL BASTARD: A bastard who was born before the marriage of his parents who intermarry thereafter. This was not
bastardy by the ecclesiastical law, but by the common law, it is. See 3 Bl Comm 335.
SPECIAL ASSESSMENT: A local assessment; the levy of a burden upon property within a limited area for the payment for a
local improvement supposed to be for the benefit of all property within the area. 48 Am J1st Spec A § 3.
The word "tax" as it is used in a statute is usually construed to have reference to taxation for general purposes, and not to
local assessments. McIlroy v Ugitt, 182 Ark 1017, 33 SW2d 719, 73 ALR 1223. Local assessments do not come within the
meaning of the word "tax" as used in the constitutional provision exempting lands of the state from taxation. Re Simpson, 43
Cal 2d 594, 275 P2d 467, 47 ALR2d 991.
In their ordinary sense, local assessments are not taxes, but they are taxes in the more general signification that they are a
charge put upon property by authority of the lawmaking power. The general distinction is taken between taxes and local
assessments that the former are forced contributions levied by the government alike upon all property, for the purpose of
raising revenue for the support of the government without reference to the special benefits that will inure to the property thus
taxed, while the latter are also forced contributions which are levied by the government, but upon certain particular property,
with a view of raising revenue for certain designated purposes, having direct reference to the special benefits that will inure
to the property thus taxed. Shreveport v Prescott, 51 La Ann 1895, 26 So 664; Altman v Kilburn, 45 NM 453, 116 P2d 812,
136 ALR 554.
SPECIAL ASSUMPSIT: Assumpsit upon an express contract or promise. 1 Am J2d Actions § 15.
ASSUMPSIT: A common law action by which compensation in damages may be recovered for the nonperformance of a
contract express or implied, written or verbal, but not under seal and not of record. Board of Highway Comrs. v
Bloomington, 253 Ill 164, 97 NE 280; 1 Am J2d Actions § 11.
TAXABLE PROPERTY: Property which is liable to taxation; property which is not exempt from taxation.
TAXATION: The assessment and collection of taxes, a power and process by which the sovereign raises revenue to defray the
necessary expenses of government, apportioning the cost of government among those who in some measure are privileged to
enjoy its benefits and must bear its burdens. Messer v Lang, 129 Fla 546, 176, 113 ALR 1073. An act of sovereignty to be
Page 1 of 2
performed, so far as it conveniently can be, with justice and equality to all. Union Pass. R. Co. v Philadelphia, 101 US 528,
25 L Ed 912. Graphically, but realistically stated, obtaining the greatest amount of feathers with the least squawking.
TAXATION AND REPRESENTATION: Concomitants under the American system of government. The rallying cry of the
framers of the Federal Constitution. The principle was that the consent of those who were expected to pay the tax was
essential to its validity. Hence, the Constitution provided that representatives and direct taxes should be apportioned among
the states according to numbers, Article 1, Section 2, and that all duties, imports, and excises should be uniform throughout
the United States, Article I, Section 8. Pollock v Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. 157 US 429, 158 US 601, 39 L Ed 759, 1108, 15
S Ct 673, 912.
THE POWER TO TAX IS THE POWER TO DESTROY: A famous declaration of Chief Justice Marshall in McCulloch
v State of Maryland, 4 Wheat (US) 431, 4 L Ed 579.
A striking instance of the truth of this proposition is seen in the fact that the existing tax of ten per cent, imposed by the
United States on the circulation of all other banks than national banks, drove out of existence every state bank of circulation
within a year or two after its passage. Loan Asso. v Topeka (US) 20 Wall 655, 22 L Ed 455.
13th Amendment:
Section 1. Neither Slavery nor Involuntary Servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, SHALL EXIST within the United States, or any place subject to enforce jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
PRIVATE RESIDENCE: A residence for one family ONLY. Anno: 18 ALR 460. See private dwelling house.
No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a
citizen of the United States, and who SHALL NOT, when elected, be an INHABITANT of that State in which he shall
be chosen. (This means they could only be in office one term, and then they were to set out the next term and if lucky be
elected to a new one term of office.)
No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United
States, and who SHALL NOT, when elected, be an INHABITANT of that State for which he shall be chosen. (This
means they could only be in office one term, and then they were to set out the next term and if lucky be elected to a new
one term of office.)
BREACH OF COVENANT: The Violation of a Covenant by an act or omission, depending upon whether the duty
prescribed by the covenant is one of action or refraining from an act.
FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT: The suppression of, or silence concerning, a fact material to be known and which the
party is under a duty to communicate because of a confidential relationship between the parties or the particular
circumstances of the case. American Nat. Bank v Fidelity & Deposit Co. 131 Ga 854, 63 SE 622. As a bar to discharge in
bankruptcy:–the failure of the bankrupt to disclose his property to his trustee in bankruptcy after having had reasonable
opportunity so to do. 9 Am J2d Bankr § 695. As a criminal offense against the Bankruptcy Act:–knowingly to conceal from
the receiver, custodian, trustee, marshal, or other officer of the court charged with the custody or control of property, or from
creditors in any proceeding under the Bankruptcy Act, any property belonging to the estate of a bankrupt; to conceal
property knowingly, in contemplation of a bankruptcy proceeding, with intent to defeat the bankruptcy law. 18 USC § 152,
paragraphs (1), (6).
CRIMINAL ACTION. An action by the sovereign; that is the state or the United States, or instituted on behalf of the
sovereign, against one charged with the commission of a criminal act, for the enforcement of the penalty or punishment
prescribed by law. 1 Am J2d Actions § 43.
CRIMINAL CONVERSATION: The tortious invasion of the rights of husband and wife which occurs when a third person
has adulterous intercourse with one of them and for which the innocent and offended spouse has a cause of action against the
adulterer. At common law no action lay on behalf of a wife for the seduction of her husband, but statute has changed this rule
in the great majority of American jurisdictions. 27 Am J1st H & W § 535.
INHABITANT: A word impossible of precise and inclusive definition, since the meaning varies according to the context in
which it appears, particularly where the matter is one of determining the legislative intent in a statute. 25 Am J2d Dom § 10.
Narrowly, a dweller or householder, whether he be a tenant in fee simple, a life tenant, a tenant for years, a tenant at will, or
one who has no interest in the premises other than that it is his habitation and dwelling. One having a domicil in a particular
place. 25 Am J2d Dom § 10.
NEED TO LOOK-UP: Principality and State/Estate in a Good Dictionary
Page 2 of 2