Gould v. Gould

• Decision Date: 19 November 1917
• Docket Number: No. 41,41
• Citation: Gould v. Gould, 245 U.S. 151, 38 S.Ct. 53, 62 L.Ed. 211 (1917)
• Parties: GOULD v. GOULD
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

245 U.S. 151

38 S.Ct. 53

62 L.Ed. 211

GOULD

v GOULD.

No. 41.

Submitted Nov. 8, 1917.

Decided Nov. 19, 1917.

Mr. Martin W. Littleton, of New York City, for plaintiff in error.

Mr. John L. McNab, of San Francisco, Cal., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDSdelivered the opinion of the Court.

A decree of the Supreme Court for New York county entered in 1909 forever separated the parties to this proceeding, then and now citizens of the United States, from bed and board; and further ordered that plaintiff in error pay to Katherine C. Gould during her life the sum of $3,000 every month for her support and maintenance.The question presented is whether such monthly payments during the years 1913 and 1914 constituted parts of Mrs. Gould's income within the intendment of the act of Congress approved October 3, 1913(38 Stat. 114, 166, c. 16), and were subject as such to the tax prescribed therein.The court below answered in the negative; and we think it reached the proper conclusion.

Pertinent portions of the act follow:

'Section II, A. Subdivision 1.That there shall be levied, assessed, collected and paid annually upon the entire net income arising or accruing from all sources in the preceding calendar year to every citizen of the United States, whether residing at home or abroad, and to every person residing in the United States, though not a citizen thereof, a tax of 1 per centum per annum upon such income, except as hereinafter provided. * * *

'B.That, subject only to such exemptions and deductions as are hereinafter allowed, the net income of a taxable person shall include gains, profits, and income derived from salaries, wages, or compensation for personal service of whatever kind and in whatever form paid, or from professions, vocations, business, trade, commerce or sales, or dealings in property, whether real or personal, growing out of the ownership or use of or interest in real or personal property, also from interest, rent, dividends, securities, or the transaction of any lawful business carried on for gain or profit, or gains or profits and income derived from any source whatever, including the income from but not the value of property acquired by gift, bequest, devise, or descent. * * *'

In the interpretation of statutes levying taxes it is the established rule not to extend their provisions, by implication, beyond the clear import of the language used, or to enlarge their operations so as to embrace matters not...