State Tax Commission v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance

The State Tax Commission appeals from a decision of the Appellate Tax Board granting to the insurance company an abatement of a part of the company’s insurance excise assessed in 1957. This excise is imposed by G. L. c. 63, § 20 (as amended by St. 1941, c. 509, § 5, and as affected by St. 1943, c. 531, § 2), at the rate of “one quarter of one per cent upon the net value of all policies in force on December thirty-first of the year preceding that in which the tax is payable, issued or assumed by such company on the lives of residents of this commonwealth . . ..”

The company is a Massachusetts…