Redfield v. Fisher

The individual, unlike the corporation, cannot be taxed for the mere privilege of existing. The corporation is an artificial entity which owes its existence and charter powers to the state; but the individual's rights to live and own property are natural rights for the enjoyment of which an excise cannot be imposed. 26 R. C. L. Taxation § 208, p. 2:16; Cooley Taxation (4th Ed.) § 1676; In re Opinion of the Justices, 18;) Mass. 607, 84 N. IS. 488. Thus when the corporation pays 5 per cent. of its net income to the state in obedience to chapter 427, it has not paid an ad valorem tax based upon the value of its intangibles, or calculated upon the return from such possessions, but has discharged an entirely different tax imposed for a very different reason.

Flint v. Stone Tracy Co., 220 U.S. 107 (1911)

The Corporation Tax, as imposed by Congress in the Tariff Act of 1909, is not a direct tax, but an excise; it does not fall within the apportionment clause of the Constitution, but is within, and complies with, the provision for uniformity throughout the United States; it is an excise on the privilege of doing business in a corporate capacity, and, as such, is within the power of Congress to impose; franchises of corporations are not governmental agencies of the state.…