hat "the nature or
amount of the tax could not reasonably have been anticipated by the
taxpayer at the time of the particular voluntary act which the
[retroactive] statute later made the taxable event * * * Taxation,
* * *, of a gift which * * * [the donor] might well have refrained from
making had he anticipated the tax, * * * [is] thought to be so arbitrary
* * * as to be a denial of due process."[472]

Other Types of Taxes

Income Taxes.--Any attempt by a State to measure a tax on one
person's income by reference to the income of another is contrary to due
process as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus a husband cannot
be taxed on the combined total of his and his wife's incomes as shown by
separate returns, where her income is her separate property and where,
by reason of the tax being graduated, its amount exceeded the sum of the
taxes which would have been due had their separate incomes been
separately assessed.[473] Moreover, a tax on income, unlike a gift tax,
is not necessarily unconstitutional, because retroactive. Taxpayers
cannot complain of arbitrary action or assert surprise in the
retroactive apportionment of tax burdens to income when that is done by
the legislature at the first opportunity after knowledge of the nature
and amount of the income is available.[474]

Franchise Taxes.--A city ordinance imposing annual license
taxes on light and power companies is not violative of the due process
clause merely because the city has entered the power business in
competition with such companies.[475] Nor does a municipal charter
authorizing the imposition upon a local telegraph company of a tax upon
the lines of the company within its limits at the rate at which other
property is taxed, but upon an arbitrary valuation per mile, deprive the
company of its property without due process of law, inasmuch as the tax
is a mere franchise or privilege tax.[476]

Severance Taxes.--A State excise on the production of oil which
extends to the royalty interest of the lessor in the oil produced under
an oil lease as well as to the interest of the lessee engaged in the
active work of production, the tax being apportioned between these
parties according to their respective interest in the common venture, is
not arbitrary as regards the lessor, but consistent with due
process.[477]

Real Property Taxes (Assessment).--The maintenance of a high
assessment in the face of declining value is merely another way of
ac