Messinger v. Wis. Tax Comm'n

• Decision Date: 22 June 1936
• Citation: 267 N.W. 535,222 Wis. 156
• Parties: MESSINGER v. WISCONSIN TAX COMMISSION ET AL.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

222 Wis. 156

267 N.W. 535

MESSINGER

v.WISCONSIN TAX COMMISSION ET AL.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

June 22, 1936.

Appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court for Milwaukee County; Charles L. Aarons, Judge.

Affirmed.

Appeal to the circuit court by C. R. Messinger from an order of the Wisconsin Tax Commission confirming an assessment against him of the emergency relief tax on incomes imposed by chapter 363, Laws 1933. From a judgment vacating the tax, the Commission and the Assessor of Incomes appeal. The facts are stated in the opinion.

James E. Finnegan, Atty. Gen., Herbert H. Naujoks, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Wm. A. Zabel, Dist. Atty., and C. Stanley Perry, Asst. Corp. Counsel, both of Milwaukee, for appellants.

Wood, Warner & Tyrrell, of Milwaukee, for respondent.

FOWLER, Justice.

The respondent was a resident of Wisconsin from January 1 to November 29 in the year 1932. He paid the normal income tax in 1933 on the portion of his 1932 income attributable under the Wisconsin statutes to his Wisconsin residence during that year. In the year 1933 he was not a resident of the state, conducted no business therein, and received no income from property located therein. Chapter 363, Laws 1933, effective July 9, provided as follows:

“Section 2. Emergency Relief Tax on Incomes. (1) To provide revenues for relief purposes there is levied and there shall be assessed, collected, and paid, in addition to all other income taxes, an emergency tax upon the net incomes of all persons other than corporations in the calendar year 1932.”

This tax became due November 1, 1933. The assessor of incomes of Milwaukee county, where Messinger resided in 1932, pursuant to said act, assessed the additional tax on the portion of Messinger's 1932 income that his normal income tax for 1933 was assessed upon. No objection is here made to the apportionment of his income during 1932 upon which his normal tax was based. Objection was made before the assessor of incomes to the assessment of the tax imposed by chapter 363 on the ground that the state was without power to tax him in 1933 because he was not a resident of the state during that year and derived no income during that year from property or business in this state. The income tax board of review confirmed the tax, and the tax commission confirmed the board of review. The tax imposed amounted to $3,272.30.

The appellants base their claim of the validity of the tax upon the proposition that income derived by a resident of the state during a given year is taxable, although assessed during the following year when he has become a nonresident. McCarty v. Tax Commission, 215 Wis. 645, 255 N.W. 913, 93 A.L.R. 1196.

It seems to us that the language of the statute above quoted compels rejection of this contention. It declares that “there is levied * * * an emergency tax upon the net incomes of all persons * * * [received] in the calendar year 1932.”...