stating that "[a]cts imposing a tax must be strictly construed against the Commonwealth and all reasonable doubt must be resolved in favor of the taxpayer"
How later courts described this case
- stating that "[a]cts imposing a tax must be strictly construed against the Commonwealth and all reasonable doubt must be resolved in favor of the taxpayer"
- "Where ... the words of a statute are not clear or explicit the contemporaneous construction of a statute by those charged with its execution and application, especially when it has long prevailed, is entitled to great weight and should not be disregarded or overturned except for clear language in the [Pennsylvania Transfer Inheritance Tax Act] itself or very strong cogent and convincing reasons."
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Cohen:
The appellee in his brief concedes, as he must, that there is an economic difference to the legatee between an ordinary legacy and a tax free legacy. He says, “There can be no argument about this fact — obviously it is better to be left a tax free legacy. But the Act does not say that this economic difference is something which is to be taxed.” This is my point of departure. I think the only construction that can consistently be placed on the forty-five or more amendments to the Transfer Inheritance Tax Act is that “the clear value of the property . . . passing to or for the use of” the legatee can be measured only by the economic value. The legislature undoubtedly used clear value synonymously with economic value. The clear and expressed intent of the legislature was to place a transfer tax *380 upon the decedent’s property passing to or for the use of the legatee and imposes the tax liability upon the legatee. When the decedent’s property is transferred to the state for the credit of the legatee’s tax liability, I cannot see how this is not property' transferred for the use of the legatee and hence taxable.
A similar construction has been placed on every like situation that has arisen in regard to federal taxes. The fact that the Commonwealth has not adopted this practice for the past thirty-eight years provides no excuse for our failure to apply the proper application of the law and mathematics now. It only generates embarrassment to the writer that he did not apply the proper law when he had an opportunity so to do.