Hoeper v. Tax Commission of Wisconsin, 284 U.S. 206 (1931)

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Hoeper v. Tax Commission of Wisconsin

No. 17

Submitted October 15, 1931
Decided November 30, 1931
284 U.S. 206

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN

Syllabus

1. A Wisconsin income tax statute which authorizes an assessment against a husband of a tax computed on the combined total of his and his wife’s incomes and augmented by surtaxes resulting from the combination, although, under the laws of the state, the husband has no interest in or control over the property or income of his wife, held violative of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 215.

2. The statute as so applied cannot be justified either as necessary to prevent frauds and evasion or, since it is essentially a revenue measure, as a regulation of the marriage relation. Pp. 216-217.

202 Wis. 493, 233 N.W. 100, reversed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin which affirmed a judgment upholding the validity under the Fourteenth Amendment of statutes of the state imposing taxes upon incomes.