Also known as: excises · excised · excising · excision · excisions
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A tax imposed on the manufacture, sale, or use of goods or on an occupation or activity. The tax must be uniform throughout the United States when levied by Congress under its enumerated powers.
Congress enacts a statute imposing a nationwide excise tax on interstate sales of standardized testing software. Elemental Pharmaceuticals, a vendor operating in multiple states, pays the tax and passes the cost to buyers. The revenue funds education grants to states that adopt a national curriculum. Redwood State challenges the tax as exceeding federal power, but the uniformity requirement is satisfied because the tax applies equally across all states.
A corporation issues bonds subject to a federal excise tax on the transaction. The trust later distributes proceeds that include amounts paid under that excise tax. Beneficiaries litigate the distribution and the court treats the excise-derived funds under ordinary trust accounting rules.
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The special prosecutor seeks presidential tapes that reference an excise tax on certain industries. The district court reviews the tapes and the excise-tax segments are turned over while privileged material remains sealed.
Congress levies a uniform excise tax on construction equipment and directs the proceeds to a federal infrastructure fund. States receive grants only if they adopt specified labor standards. South Dakota accepts the funds and enacts the required rules, illustrating how the excise tax supports conditional spending for the general welfare.
Congress attempts to use an excise tax on local gun possession near schools to regulate intrastate conduct. The statute fails because the taxed activity lacks a substantial effect on interstate commerce. Equinox Energy, a local supplier, avoids the tax after the Court strikes down the regulatory scheme.
Emmett Egan represents himself in a criminal case involving failure to pay an excise tax on wagering. He requests production of documents used to refresh a government witness's recollection. The court orders production of the excise-tax materials after appropriate review.
An excise tax is levied on specific goods, transactions, or activities rather than on net income. The Constitution requires excises to be uniform throughout the United States, a geographic limitation that does not apply to income taxes in the same manner.
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Yes. Congress may spend excise tax proceeds for the general welfare and may condition grants on state compliance with related federal policies, provided the conditions are unambiguous and reasonably related to the federal interest.
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No. Uniformity governs only the imposition of the tax itself across states. Congress retains discretion to allocate the resulting revenue unevenly among states or regions when spending for the general welfare.
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…See Maryland v. Wirtz , 392 U. S., at 192-193 (if class of activities is " within the reach of federal power,' " courts may not excise individual applications as trivial) (quoting Darby , 312 U. S., at 120-121). The aggregation principle is clever, but has no stopping point. Suppose all would agree that gun possession…