State Tax Comm’n v. Van Cott, 306 U.S. 511 (1939)

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State Tax Comm’n v. Van Cott

No. 491

Argued March 6, 7, 1939
Decided March 27, 1939
306 U.S. 511

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF UTAH

Syllabus

1. Salaries of employees or officials of federal instrumentalities are not immune under the Federal Constitution from taxation by the States. Graves . New York ex rel. O’Keefe, ante, p. 466. P. 515.

2. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Utah holding the salaries of an attorney for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation, both federal agencies, exempt from state taxation does not rest squarely upon the exemption in the Utah income tax law of salaries received from the United States "for services rendered in connection with the exercise of an essential governmental function," but appears also to have been actuated by the doctrine that state taxation of such salaries is forbidden by the Federal Constitution. P. 513.

3. In view of the overruling of that doctrine by Graves v. O’Keefe, this Court vacates the judgment of the Supreme Court of Utah and remands the case to that court, in order that it may determine whether the salaries in question are exempted by the state statute, purely as a question of local law. P. 515.

95 Utah 43, 79 P.2d 6, vacated.

Certiorari, 305 U.S. 59, to review a judgment sustaining a claim of exemption from state income taxation, on appeal from a ruling of the above-named Tax Commission.