Eliot v. Freeman, 220 U.S. 178 (1911)
U.S. Supreme Court
Eliot v. Freeman, 220 U.S. 178 (1911)
Eliot v. Freeman
Nos. 448, 496
Argued January 19, 1911
Decided March 13, 1911
220 U.S. 178
Syllabus
It was the intention of Congress to embrace within the corporation tax provisions of the Tariff Act of August 5, 1909, c. 6, 36 Stat. 11, 112, only such corporations and joint stock associations as are organized under some statute, or derive from that source some quality or benefit not existing at the common law.
A trust formed in a state, where statutory joint stock companies are unknown, for the purpose of purchasing, improving, holding and selling land, and which does not have perpetual succession but ends with lives in being and twenty years thereafter, is not within the provisions of the Corporation Tax Law.
The facts, which involve the construction of the Corporation Tax Law, are stated in the opinion.