United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Alpha Portland Cement Co. v. Commonwealth, 268 U.S. 203 (1925)

Alpha Portland Cement Co. v. Commonwealth

Nos. 103 and 327

Argued October 23, 1924

Decided May 4, 1925

268 U.S. 203

Syllabus

1. A state may not impose upon a foreign corporation which transacts only interstate business within her borders an excise tax measured by a combination of the total value of capital shares attributed to transactions therein and the proportion of net income attributed to such transactions. Mass.Gen.Ls. c. 63. P. 268 U. S. 216.

Page 268 U. S. 204

2. Any excise laid on account of interstate commerce is invalid, without regard to measure or amount. P. 268 U. S. 217.

3. Under the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, a state may not burden interstate commerce or tax property beyond her borders under the guise of regulating or taxing intrastate business; the amount demanded is unimportant, and payment as a condition precedent to doing business is not a controlling element. Baltic Mining Co. v. Massachusetts, 231 U. S. 68, 231 U. S. 87, in part disapproved. P. 268 U. S. 218.

248 Mass. 156, 244 id. 530, reversed.

Error to judgments of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts sustaining excise taxes imposed on the plaintiff in error corporation.

Page 268 U. S. 206