AIRWORK SER. DIV., ETC. v. Director, Div. of Taxation

It is the part of a good shepherd to shear the flock, not flay it. [Tiberius Caesar, A.D. 25.]

Justice Frankfurter once noted that “[e]ven tax administration does not as a matter of principle preclude considerations of fairness.” Angelus Milling Co. v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue, 325 U.S. 293, 297, 65 S.Ct. 1162, 1165, 89 L.Ed. 1619, 1623 (1945). Today’s decision loses sight of the need for fairness. It *303allows the Division of Taxation (Division), long after the transactions in question were closed, to extract from Airwork Service Division (Airwork) sales taxes that the Division itself informed…