Retroactive Taxes

A gift tax cannot be imposed on gifts consummated before the taxing
statute was adopted.[241] A conclusive presumption that gifts made
within two years of death were made in contemplation of death was
condemned as arbitrary and capricious even with respect to subsequent
transfers.[242] A tax may be made retroactive for a short period to
include profits made while it was in process of enactment. A special
income tax on profits realized by the sale of silver, retroactive for 35
days, which was approximately the period during which the silver
purchase bill was before Congress, was held valid.[243] An income tax
law, made retroactive to the beginning of the calendar year in which it
was adopted, was found constitutional as applied to the gain from the
sale, shortly before its enactment, of property received as a gift
during the year.[244] Retroactive assessment of penalties for fraud or
negligence,[245] or of an additional tax on the income of a corporation
used to avoid a surtax on its shareholders,[246] does not deprive the
taxpayer of property without due process of law.

An additional excise tax imposed upon property still held for sale,
after one excise tax had been paid by a previous owner, does not violate
the due process clause.[247] A transfer tax measured in part by the
value of property held jointly by a husband and wife, including that
which comes to the joint tenancy as a gift from the decedent spouse, is
valid,[248] as is the inclusion in the gross income of the settler of
income accruing to a revocable trust during any period when he had power
to revoke or modify it.[249]

GOVERNANCE OF THE INDIANS

The power of Congress in virtue of its wardship over Indians extends to
a restriction on alienation of Indian lands even after a particular
Indian has been granted citizenship.[250] But rights of tax exemption
accruing to Indian allotments under an act of Congress, which have
become vested, are protected by this amendment against repeal.[251] One
who was duly enrolled as a member of the Chickasaw Nation acquired
valuable rights which the Secretary of the Interior could not strike
down without notice and hearing.[252] An act authorizing suit against
allottees of Indian property as a class, for the value of services in
securing the allotments, which provided for notice upon the governor of
the tribe and designated the Attorney General to defend the suit, was
consonant with due process.[253]