In re House Bill No. 122

• Decision Date: 15 March 1897
• Citation: 23 Colo. 492,48 P. 535
• Parties: In re HOUSE BILL No. 122.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

48 P. 535

23 Colo. 492

In re HOUSE BILL No. 122.

Supreme Court of Colorado

March 15, 1897

The opinion of the court was delivered in response to the following resolution and interrogatory from the honorable house of representatives:

'Whereas there has been introduced in the house of representatives of the state of Colorado a bill entitled 'An act to provide for the taxation of gifts, legacies, and inheritances in certain cases, and to provide for the collection of the same;' and whereas, said bill has passed through its second reading, been engrossed, revised and recommended for third reading and final passage through the said house; and whereas, its constitutionality has been brought into question: Therefore, be it resolved by said house of representatives that the honorable supreme court of the state of Colorado be, and hereby is, requested to render its opinion in writing at the earliest possible date, for the use of the house, whether said bill, a copy of which is hereto attached, is in conflict with the provisions of section 3 of article 10 of the said constitution, and particularly that portion of said section 3 included in the first sentence thereof.'

A tax on inheritances is not such a tax on property as is contemplated by Const. art. 10, § 3, providing that "all taxes shall be uniform," etc., but is a contribution which the state levies for itself as a condition on which the title to property shall pass on the death of the owner.

J. Warner Mills, for constitutionality.

PER CURIAM.

The bill attached to the foregoing interrogatory provides for the levy and collection of what is commonly designated an 'inheritance tax.' The right to impose such tax is based upon the power of the state in its sovereign capacity to regulate and control the transmission of property by inheritance. Although designated as a tax, it is not such a tax upon property as is contemplated by section 3 of article 10 of the state constitution. It is rather a contribution which the state levies for itself as a condition upon which the title to property shall pass upon the death of its owner hence the interrogatory propounded must be answered in the negative. Dos P. Col. Inh. Taxes (2d Ed.) § 8; State v Hamlin (Me.) 30 A. 76; Minot v. Winthrop (Mass.) 38 N.E. 512; State v. Alston, 94 Tenn. 674, 30 S.W. 750; U.S. v. Perkins 163 U.S. 625, 16 S.Ct. 1073. Although an inheritance tax law of some kind is in force in very many...