New York Times Co. v. Commissioner of Revenue

The taxpayers, The New York Times Company (Times) and Federal Express Corporation (FedEx), appeal from the decisions of the Appellate Tax Board (board) upholding the Commissioner of Revenue’s (commissioner’s) imposition of excise tax on the Times and FedEx for use of their aircraft in the Commonwealth. The Times argues that the imposition constitutes an unlawful exception to the long-standing, consistent, and binding policy of the commissioner to exempt all instrumentalities of interstate commerce from the Massachusetts use tax. FedEx does not claim that there was any such long-standing and…