Collector v. Day

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COLLECTOR V. DAY

COLLECTOR V. DAY, 11 Wallace 113 (1871). Between 1864 and 1867, Congress passed revenue acts taxing the income of "every person residing in the United States." Day, a probate judge in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, paid the tax under protest and sued to recover on grounds that it was inappropriate for the federal government to tax his judicial salary. By an 8 to 1 vote, the Supreme Court agreed with Day. The Court did not, as is sometimes claimed, invalidate the federal tax. An unintended result of Collector v. Day was a miasma of tax exemptions for state and federal employees. The Court repudiated the principle of intergovernmental exemption in the case of Graves v. New York (1939).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fairman, Charles. Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864–88. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

Alvin F.Harlow

R. VolneyRiser

See alsoTaxation .

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Collector v. Day

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