Also known as: imposts · customs duty · tax
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A tax or duty, especially a customs duty imposed on imports or exports.
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Innovate Pharmaceuticals imports specialized chemicals from abroad. Congress enacts a statute imposing an impost on those chemicals. The impost applies at the same rate to identical imports entering any port in the United States. Innovate Pharmaceuticals pays the impost without challenge because the uniformity requirement is satisfied.
Island Manufacturing purchases waterfront property. At closing the title company includes an impost assessed on the imported building materials used in recent renovations. The closing statement itemizes the impost as a transfer tax form so that the buyer and seller can allocate responsibility for payment.
Infinity Bank ships goods across state lines. State A attempts to collect an impost on the imported cargo when the goods cross its border. The bank refuses payment because the state lacks congressional consent to impose the impost on imports.
Ibrahim Iqbal inherits waterfront land subject to an unpaid impost that attached before the decedent's death. Title passes to Ibrahim by intestate succession without a new deed. The taxing authority treats the impost as a continuing lien that must be satisfied from estate assets before distribution.
Ilana Isaacs arranges importation of goods under an early federal statute. The impost is calculated at eight dollars per person equivalent for the cargo. The cap prevents any higher rate from being applied under the constitutional limitation then in force.
Ironclad Industries acquires property subject to both a recorded judgment lien and an unpaid federal impost. The tax lien for the impost receives statutory priority and must be satisfied first at any foreclosure sale, affecting marketability for subsequent purchasers.
An impost is a tax or duty levied on goods, most commonly imports or exports, rather than a general property or income tax. The Constitution groups imposts with duties and excises and subjects them to the uniformity requirement.
Supporting sources
No. Article I, Section 10 prohibits states from laying any imposts or duties on imports or exports without the consent of Congress, except for inspection laws whose net proceeds go to the federal treasury.
Supporting sources
An impost assessed on imported materials used in improvements may be listed on the closing statement as a transfer tax or lien that must be paid or allocated between buyer and seller at closing.
Supporting sources
…agency declines to place children with same-sex married couples. Indeed, the Solicitor General candidly acknowledged that the tax exemptions of some religious institutions would be in question if they opposed same-sex marriage. See Tr. of Oral Arg. on Question 1, at 36–38. There is little doubt that these and similar…