Tully v. Mobil Oil Corp.

In June 1980, New York State established a two percent tax on the gross receipts of oil companies limited to their revenues derived from their activities within the State. N. Y. Tax Law §182, ch. 272 (McKinney Supp. 1980). Desiring that the tax actually be borne by the oil companies, its intended objects, rather than by consumers, the New York *246Legislature prohibited the companies from passing on the cost of the tax in the prices of their products sold in New York. Ibid. The passthrough prohibition was sufficiently vital that the law provided that if the prohibition was “adjudged by any court…