Lunding v. New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, 522 U.S. 287, 15 (1998)

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Cite as: 522 U. S. 287 (1998)

Opinion of the Court

income, and a deduction for uncompensated losses sustained in New York resulting from limited circumstances, namely, nonbusiness transactions entered into for profit and casualty losses. Both residents and nonresidents were entitled to the same deduction for contributions to charitable organizations organized under the laws of New York. Tr. of Record in Travis v. Yale & Towne Mfg. Co., O. T. 1919, No. 548 (State of New York, The A, B, C of the Personal Income Tax Law, pp. 11-12, 14, ¶¶ 42, 44 (1919)). Thus, the statutory provisions disallowing nonresidents' tax deductions at issue in Travis essentially mirrored those at issue in Shaffer because they tied nonresidents' deductions to their in-state activities.

Another provision of New York's nonresident tax law challenged in Travis did not survive scrutiny under the Privileges and Immunities Clause, however. Evincing the same concern with practical effect that animated the Shaffer decision, the Travis Court struck down a provision that denied only nonresidents an exemption from tax on a certain threshold of income, even though New York law allowed nonresi-dents a corresponding credit against New York taxes in the event that they paid resident income taxes in some other State providing a similar credit to New York residents. The Court rejected the argument that the rule was "a case of occasional or accidental inequality due to circumstances personal to the taxpayer." 252 U. S., at 80. Nor was denial of the exemption salvaged "upon the theory that non-residents have untaxed income derived from sources in their home States or elsewhere outside of the State of New York, corresponding to the amount upon which residents of that State are exempt from taxation [by New York] under this act," because "[t]he discrimination is not conditioned upon the existence of such untaxed income; and it would be rash to assume that non-residents taxable in New York under this law, as a class, are receiving additional income from outside sources equivalent to the amount of the exemptions that are accorded to citizens of New York and denied to them." Id.,

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