Eisner V. Macomber - Issue

Issue

Essentially, therefore, the question in Macomber was not whether the shareholder had gain in an economic sense, but whether in legal or accounting terms the stock dividend was to be regarded as a taxable event. ... Stripped of its Constitutional element, the issue in Eisner v. Macomber in the end comes down to a "battle of similarities." Is a stock dividend (as the majority held) "more like" a situation in which a corporation simply accumulates its earnings and makes no distribution at all? Or is it (as Brandeis thought) "more like" the receipt of a cash dividend which is followed by a reinvestment of the cash received in additional shares? —Marvin Chirelstein, Federal Income Taxation, A Law Student's Guide

Read more about this topic:  Eisner V. Macomber

Famous quotes containing the word issue:

    “I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart.
    But the saying is true: “The empty vessel makes the greatest
    sound.””
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “Public administrators would get along better if they would restrain the impulse to butt in or be dragged into trouble. They should remain silent until an issue is reduced to its lowest terms, until it boils down into something like a moral issue.”
    —Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)

    “For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind;
    For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;
    Put rancors in the vessel of my peace
    Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
    Given to the common enemy of man,
    To make them kings, the seeds of Banquo kings!”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)