Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/623

587 HARVARD LAW REVIEW VOL. XXXII APRIL, 1919 NO. 6 JURISDICTION TO TAX npHE power to tax is one of the attributes of sovereignty; and ■*• the jurisdiction to exercise the power is coterminous with the bounds of the sovereign's jurisdiction. "It is obvious that it is an incident of sovereignty, and is coextensive with that to which it is an incident. All subjects over which the sovereign power of a state extends are objects of taxation, but those over which it does not extend are, upon the soundest principles, exempt from taxation. . . . The sovereignty of a state extends to everything which exists by its own authority or is introduced by its permis- sion. . . . The power to tax involves the power to destroy." ^ "The power of taxation, however vast in its character and search- ing in its extent, is necessarily limited to subjects within the juris- diction of the state. These subjects are persons, property and business." 2 "The taxing power of the state . . . cannot reach over into any other jurisdiction to seize upon persons or property for purposes of taxation. No officer, however armed by statute or court process of this state, can seize upon [such property] for taxes." ^ A personal tax may be laid upon persons subject to the jurisdiction of the sovereign; a property tax upon all property situated in his territory; an excise or license tax upon all acts done within his boundaries.* The sovereign who has power to tax is that sovereign who by » Marshall, C. J., in M'Culloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. (U. S.) 316, 429, 431 (1819). ' Emery, J., in Augusta v. Kimball, 91 Me. 605, 40 Atl. 666 (1898). -• Commonwealth v. Standard Oil Co., loi Pa. 119 (1882).
 * Field, J., in State Tax on Foreign-Held Bonds, 15 Wall. (U. S.) 300 (1872).