U.S. Supreme Court WHEELER LUMBER BRIDGE & SUPPLY CO. v. UNITED STATES, 281 U.S. 572 (1930)

[Page 281 U.S. 572, 579]

the place of sale and delivery. There is no delivery, and therefore no sale, until after the transportation is completed. Upon these facts, recited in the question, we are of opinion that the transportation is not a service rendered to the county in the sense of the sections cited, but is a service rendered to the vendor. Conceding that the sections are parts of a taxing scheme, and assuming that they are intended to recognize and fully respect the constitutional immunity of a state agency, such as a county, from federal taxation, we think they neither require such transportation to be regarded as a service to the county nor operate to exempt such transportation from the tax.

The tax is not laid on the sale nor because of the sale. It is laid on the transportation and is measured by the transportation charges. True, it appears that here the transportation was had with a view to a definite sale; but the fact remains that transportation was not part of the sale but preliminary to it and wholly the vendor's affair. United States v. Normile, 239 U.S. 344, 348, 36 S. Ct. 122. It follows that the tax on the transportation cannot be regarded as a tax or burden on the sale. Cornell v. Coyne, , 24 S. Ct. 383.

As the tax is not laid on the sale or in any wise measured by it, the case of Panhandle Oil Co. v. Mississippi, 277 U.S. 218, 48 S. Ct. 451, 56 A. L. R. 583, referred to in the question and relied on by the plaintiff, is not in point.

Question Answered 'No.'