Trust v. State Tax Commission

OPINION OF THE COURT

Judgment affirmed, with costs. Facile categorization of taxable transactions as "voluntary” or "involuntary” does not progress the analysis. Even property taxes and income taxes involve voluntary acts—the decision to own property or to earn, rather than to forego, income.

Retroactivity provisions in tax statutes, if for a short period, are generally valid, but the constitutional analysis must involve a balancing of equities. Arbitrariness in a tax statute, it has been held, deprives taxpayers of property without due process of law (People ex rel. Best & Co. v Graves, 265 NY…