# Druker v. State Tax Commission

> Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · January 5, 1978 · 374 Mass. 198

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9533798

## Case

- **Full name:** Bertram A. Druker vs. State Tax Commission
- **Court:** Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- **Decided:** January 5, 1978
- **Citations:** 374 Mass. 198; 372 N.E.2d 208; 1978 Mass. LEXIS 834
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Braucher
- **Judges:** Hennessey, Braucher, Wilkins, Liacos, Abrams
- **Cited by:** 14 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9533798

## Opinion text

Braucher, J.
(dissenting). I find G. L. c. 62, § 4, as appearing in St. 1971, c. 555, § 5, clear on its face, and the taxpayer’s interpretation seems to me to be a perverse misreading. Under § 4 (a) interest, dividends, and capital gains were taxed at 9 % if “included in the income subject to taxation.” The taxpayer received such income, and it was so included. Other income, taxable at 5% under § 4 (b), was also included in “income subject to taxation,” but the net balance of other income was negative. Most of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth understood the principle and paid their taxes accordingly, and I cannot join in a special windfall to an ingenious taxpayer who claims not to understand *203 negative or minus numbers. I also disagree with the court’s disregard of trusts deliberately set up by the taxpayer to enable him to claim that there was or was not a trust, whichever might be to his advantage.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9533798. Public record. Not legal advice.