United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

International Harvester v. Department of Treasury, 322 U.S. 340 (1944)

International Harvester v. Department of Treasury

No. 355

Argued February 29, 1944

Decided May 15, 1944

322 U.S. 340

Syllabus

1. An Indiana tax upon gross income, as applied to receipts from the following classes of sales by a foreign corporation authorized to do business in Indiana, was not precluded by the Commerce Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment: (1) sales by out-of-State branches to Indiana dealers and users where delivery is taken at plants of the corporation in Indiana; (2) sales to out-of-State buyers who come to Indiana, take delivery there, and transport the goods to another State; (3) sales in Indiana to Indiana buyers where the goods are shipped from out-of-State points to the buyer. Pp. 322 U. S. 344-346.

2. Neither the Commerce Clause nor the Fourteenth Amendment precludes the imposition of a state tax on receipts from an intrastate transaction, even though the total activities from which

Page 322 U. S. 341

the local transaction derives may have incidental interstate attributes. P. 322 U. S. 344.

3. A State constitutionally may tax gross receipts from interstate transactions consummated within its borders where it treats wholly local transactions similarly. P. 322 U. S. 348.

221 Ind. 416, 47 N.E.2d 150, affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment sustaining as to certain transactions of the appellants a state tax on gross receipts.