Apartment Operators Ass'n of Seattle, Inc. v. Schumacher
| Decision Date | 14 April 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 35276,35276 |
| Citation | 56 Wn.2d 46,351 P.2d 124 |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
| Parties | APARTMENT OPERATORS ASSOCIATION OF SEATTLE, INC.; Donald C. Haas and Virginia Haas, his wife; A. S. Stusser; Frank R. Frazier; and Jennie Coffey, Respondents, v. William S. SCHUMACHER, Charles W. Hodde and Clark Squire, as State Tax Commissioners for State of Washington, Appellants, Central Building Company and Loubelle Realty Company, Inc., Intervenors and Respondents. |
John J. O'Connell, Atty. Gen., John W. Riley, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellants.
Merges and Brain, Eugene D. Zelensky, Seattle, for Apt. Operators Assn. of Seattle and others.
Harroun & Shidler, Seattle, for intervenor-respondents.
The members of the state tax commission appeal from a declaratory judgment enjoining the enforcement of laws of 1959, Ex.Sess., chapter 5, § 4, providing for the collection of a tax on rents which exceed three hundred dollars per month. The statute, so far as material, is as follows 'Upon every person engaging within this state in the business of: * * * (5) the renting or leasing of real property; as to such persons, the amount of tax on such business shall be equal to the gross income of the business multiplied by the rate of one-quarter of one percent.'
Laws of 1959, Ex.Sess., chapter 5, § 7, exempts from the tax gross rental income of under three hundred dollars per month.
With commendable candor and admirable simplicity, the attorney general, in his brief, states the single issue presented in the following words:
'It is appellant's belief that the foregoing assignments of error are individually and collectively hinged to a single question of law:
'Is the tax in question an excise tax or a property tax?'
The question is foreclosed by prior decisions of this court. The attorney general, with the same commendable forthrightness and candor, states in the printed brief:
.)'
Under those decisions, a tax on rental income is a tax on property, and not an excise tax. Furthermore, a tax upon rents from real estate is a tax upon the real estate itself, and is, thus, a second tax upon real estate. There is no tax levied by the act upon unrented real estate. For...
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