United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. v. Oklahoma, 240 U.S. 522 (1916)

Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company v. Oklahoma

No. 283

Argued March 14, 1916

Decided April 3, 1916

240 U.S. 522

Syllabus

A tax upon a lease made is a tax upon the power to make the lease

Leases that cannot be taxed as an entity cannot be taxed vicariously by taxing the stock of the corporation owning them where the only value of the stock is the value of the leases.

Oil leases of land in Oklahoma made by the Osage tribe of Indians under authority of the Acts of February 28, 1891, and March 3, 1905, are under the protection of the federal government, and the lessee is a federal instrumentality, and the state cannot therefore tax its interest in the leases either directly or as the leases are represented by the capital stock of the corporation owning them. Choctaw & Gulf R. Co. v. Harrison, 235 U. S. 292.

43 Okl. 307 reversed.

The facts, which involve the right of the Oklahoma to tax leases made by the Osage Tribe of Indians of lands in that state made under authority of acts of Congress, are stated in the opinion.