State Tax Commission v. Fine

• Decision Date: 12 May 1969
• Citation: 356 Mass. 51,247 N.E.2d 701
• Parties: STATE TAX COMMISSION v. Verna R. FINE.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 701

247 N.E.2d 701

356 Mass. 51

STATE TAX COMMISSION v. Verna R. FINE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Argued April 9, 1969.

Decided May 12, 1969.

Barry F. Corn, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State Tax Commission.

George A. Goldstein, Boston, for taxpayer, submitted a brief.

Before WILKINS, C.J., and SPALDING, CUTTER, KIRK and SPIEGEL, JJ.

CUTTER, Justice.

Verna R. Fine (the taxpayer), an inhabitant of Natick, filed a Massachusetts income tax return for 1963. She paid a tax of $527.61 on so called 'dividends' from Mesabi Trust received by her in 1963. The commission denied her application for abatement. Her appeal was pressed before the Appellate Tax Board (the board) on the ground that no tax was due on income from Mesabi Trust because such 'income was derived from real estate located solely in * * * Minnesota.'

The board rendered a decision for the taxpayer. The commission appealed. The facts are stated upon the basis of the board's findings and a stipulation.

In 1961, Masabi Iron Company, pursuant to a plan of complete liquidation, distributed its property (above amounts retained to pay certain liabilities) to Mesabi Trust and the Land Trust of which Mesabi Trust is the sole beneficial owner. ¹ Mesabi Trust owns or controls land in Minnesota which it leases to Reserve Mining Company, which in return pays to Mesabi Trust 'royalties' for the privilege of taking from the land iron ore and other minerals. Mesabi Trust's income is solely from these 'royalties.' Mesabi Trust is under obligation to 'and does distribute all income, after expenses, to the holders of 13,120,010 beneficial interest units.' The State of Minnesota 'taxes the 'royalty' income received by the individual unit holders of the (Mesabi) Trust. Mesabi Trust is not a corporation, but is a real estate trust similar to a Massachusetts real estate trust. Insofar as it is a question of fact, the * * * (taxpayer) as a unit holder of Mesabi Trust, held a transferable beneficial or equitable interest in the Minnesota real estate itself and the income in question received by her during 1963 emanated from that real estate.'

The beneficial interest in Mesabi Trust is represented by transferable units for which certificates have been issued. These units were and are listed for trading on a national stock exchange.

1. General Laws, c. 62, § 1, ² imposes an income tax on specified forms of income from intangible personal property. Among the classes of 'dividends' declared to be subject to tax, when received by an inhabitant of Massachusetts, are certain distributions of income by trusts with transferable shares. The provisions of § 1 describing such distributions are found in subsection (c). ³ As will be observed, these provisions relieve (subject to the filing of the agreement mentioned below, see fn. 5) from taxation under § 1 the distributions of certain trusts with transferable shares, among others, (1) such trusts owning exclusively real estate and certain described intangible personal property, and (2) such trusts 'engaged principally in the ownership, management or operation of real estate.' See Nichols, Taxation in Massachusetts (3d ed.), 479--482; Barrett and Bailey, Taxation (and 1969 Supp.), § 296.

Trusts with transferable shares, the distributions of which are exempt from taxation, are themselves required by § 1(d) to pay an income tax on the 'income derived from their property, so far as such income would be taxable under this section (§ 1) if received by an inhabitant of' Massachusetts. ⁴ As a condition of exempting from income tax the distributions of such a trust when received by an inhabitant of Massachusetts, the trust is required to file with the Commissioner of Corporations and Taxation an agreement ⁵ to pay the tax imposed by § 1(d), see fn. 4, and any tax imposed by c. 62, § 5, upon the trust's annuities, business income, and capital gains. See § 5(d).

The Massachusetts income tax statute was first adopted by St.1916, c. 269, pursuant to art. 44 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth. It is not a general income tax (cf. the proposed tax considered in Opinion of the Justices, 270 Mass. 593, 597, 170 N.E. 800; 1928 House Doc. No. 490, pp. 26--28; 1929 House Doc. No. 1075, p. 22) and has frequently been held to be a property tax and not an excise. ⁶ See Riesman v. Commissioner of Corps. & Taxn., 326 Mass. 574, 576--577, 95 N.E.2d 656 (which refers to some income taxes in other States as excises). So far as c. 62 taxes income from intangible personal property, it historically is a substitute for the former local property tax on the capital value of such intangibles imposed prior to 1916. See 1916 House Doc. No. 1700, p. 46, et seq.; 1916 House Doc. No. 2118, pp. 2--4; Nichols, Taxation in Massachusetts (3d ed.) 463--472.

Not only is the Massachusetts income tax a property tax but it has been held to be 'in reality a tax on the underlying property,' i.e. the property from which the income is derived. See State Tax Comm. v. Wheatland, 343 Mass. 650, 652--653, 180 N.E.2d 340. See also Cochrane v. Commissioner of Corps. & Taxn., 350 Mass. 237, 243, fn. 5, 214 N.E.2d 283. Cf. United Shoe Mach. Corp. v. Gale Shoe Mfg. Co., 314 Mass. 142, 154, 49 N.E.2d 913. Massachusetts, of course, cannot impose a property tax on real estate in Minnesota.

The provisions of c. 62, § 1, permitting certain trusts with transferable shares, whose property is largely real estate (see fns. 3, 5, supra), to relieve their shareholders of income taxation on the trust distributions, by filing the agreement mentioned above, have been in effect for over fifty years. They have not been much discussed in decided cases. In De Blois v. Commissioner of Corps. & Taxn., 276 Mass. 437, 438, 177 N.E. 566 (holding that rents from real estate are not taxable ⁷ under G.L. c. 62) this court made only a passing reference to the fact that the trust there discussed had in fact filed the statutory agreement. See Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates v. Commissioner of Int. Rev., 128 F.2d 369, 371 (1st Cir.). In State Tax Comm. v. Colbert, 344 Mass. 494, 495--497, 183 N.E.2d 277, the Massachusetts owner of transferable shares in a real estate trust, created to hold Massachusetts land, was held entitled to abatement of an income tax assessed (G.L. c. 62, § 1 (c)) upon a distribution to him of trust income received from the trust real estate. The trust had not filed with the Commissioner of Corporations and Taxation under G.L. c. 62, § 1(e), an agreement to pay the tax under § 1(d) on the trust's income which would be taxable if received by an individual inhabitant of Massachusetts. See fns. 4 and 5, supra. We said (p. 497, 183 N.E.2d p. 278), 'The taxpayer held an equitable interest in the real property held by the trust. * * * It was a beneficial interest in the real estate itself and not, as in the case of a corporation, an interest distinct from the corporate assets. * * * Despite similarities between a business trust and a corporation, a trust is treated as a distinct type of business entity within G.L. c. 62, § 1. State Street Trust Co. v. Hall, 311 Mass. 299, 303--304, 41 N.E.2d 30, 156 A.L.R. 131. Income received by a shareholder of a real estate trust in the form of a dividend is as much 'derived * * * from real estate' as income received by the trust. Taxation of shareholders' income derived from real estate trusts we think ought not to depend on whether the trustees have filed the agreement provided for in § 1(e) ⁸

The Colbert case was decided after our decision in State Tax Comm. v. Wheatland, 343 Mass. 650, 180 N.E.2d 340, where we held that under c. 62, § 5, a tax could not be imposed upon rents (timber severance royalties) as business income paid to an inhabitant of Massachusetts who was a co owner ⁹ of Maine forest real estate. We siad (p. 653, 180 N.E.2d 340) that c. 62 showed no clear intention to tax rental income from real estate 'either within or outside Massachusetts.' We applied in addition the principle that c. 62 ('in reality a (property) tax on the underlying property,' see p. 652, 180 N.E.2d p. 341) should be construed so as to avoid grave doubts about the constitutional validity of a property tax upon real estate outside Massachusetts.

What has been said above outlines the state of the law immediately after the decision in the Colbert case, 344 Mass. 494, 183 N.E.2d 277. The State Tax Commission promptly recommended ¹⁰ a change in G.L. c. 62, § 1(e), see fn. 5, supra, with respect to trusts with transferable shares which do not file the agreement. This recommendation in substance was enacted by St.1963, c. 496, which added to G.L. c. 62, § 1(e), what appears above (fn. 5) as its final sentence, viz. 'Any such dividend issued by * * * trusts, the beneficial interest in which is represented by transferable shares, regardless of their source and whether taxable or not, shall be taxable under this section if the * * * trust fails to file an agreement with the commissioner as hereinbefore provided' (emphasis supplied).

The question for decision is whether this 1963 change, which would have been extremely obscure if its purpose had not been explained to some extent by the commission's recommendations (fn. 10), is sufficient to indicate a legislative intention to impose a property tax upon rental income from Minnesota real estate. Such a tax, in substance, would result in a double, if not a triple, tax burden on that real estate, viz. (a) a Minnesota property tax on the land in Minnesota to Mesabi Trust, (b) a tax upon the 'royalties' or rental income there, see Lake Superior Consol. Iron Mines v. Lord, 271 U.S. 577, 581--582, 46 S.Ct. 627, 70 L.Ed. 1093; ¹¹ and also (c) a tax, under G.L. c. 62, § 1(c) and (e), on distributions of trust rental income from Minnesota land to the taxpayer in Massachusetts which our cases treat as a tax upon the equitable interest of the Massachusetts shareholder in the Minnesota...