Garland v. Director of Revenue

Today the Court holds that a provision of State income tax law drawn word-for-word from the Internal Revenue Code has a different meaning from that embodied in federal law. In doing so, the majority contravenes the clear intent of the legislature, ignores numerous previous decisions of this Court, and exposes Missouri taxpayers to an uncertainly defined, draconian, and legislatively unintended punitive sanction.

The majority concedes (as it must) that the federal interpretation of the term “penalty” is inconsistent with the result reached here. Section 143.091 is clear: “Any term used in…