Cite as: 514 U. S. 175 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
See also Gwin, White & Prince, Inc. v. Henneford, 305 U. S. 434, 438-439 (1939).
After a brief resurgence of the old absolutism that proscribed all taxation formally levied upon interstate commerce, see Freeman v. Hewit, 329 U. S. 249 (1946); Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. O'Connor, 340 U. S. 602 (1951), the Court returned to Western Live Stock's multiple taxation rule in Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota, 358 U. S. 450 (1959), and we categorically abandoned the latter-day formalism when Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U. S. 274 (1977), overruled Spector and Freeman. In Complete Auto, a business engaged in transporting cars manufactured outside the taxing State to dealers within it challenged a franchise tax assessed equally on all gross income derived from transportation for hire within the State. The taxpayer's challenge resting solely on the fact that the State had taxed the privilege of engaging in an interstate commercial activity was turned back, and in sustaining the tax, we explicitly returned to our prior decisions that
"considered not the formal language of the tax statute but rather its practical effect, and have sustained a tax against Commerce Clause challenge when the tax is applied to an activity with a substantial nexus with the taxing State, is fairly apportioned, does not discriminate against interstate commerce, and is fairly related to the services provided by the State." 430 U. S., at 279.
Since then, we have often applied, and somewhat refined, what has come to be known as Complete Auto's four-part test. See, e. g., Goldberg v. Sweet, 488 U. S. 252 (1989) (tax on telephone calls); D. H. Holmes Co. v. McNamara, 486 U. S. 24 (1988) (use tax); Container Corp. of America v. Franchise Tax Bd., 463 U. S. 159 (1983) (franchise tax); Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana, 453 U. S. 609 (1981) (severance tax). We apply its criteria to the tax before us today.
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