Opinion of the Justices

154 A. 632, 85 N.H. 570, 1931 N.H. LEXIS 124

Opinion

To the House of Representatives:

The undersigned, the justices of the supreme court being in receipt of your resolution requiring their opinions as to the constitutionality of section 10 of House Bill Number 28, relating to the taxation of incomes, make answer as follows:

I. Deductions of business expenditures from gross income, as set forth in section 10, paragraph (a) of the bill, are clearly allowable. One would hardly think of computing income from business, or earned income, on a basis which ignored such charges against it.

II. By paragraph (b) of the same section it is proposed to enact that there shall also be deducted from income received “The ordinary and necessary living expenses of the taxpayer required to keep him and his family in life as an income-producing and tax-paying entity, which in the case of a single man shall be deemed to be one thousand five hundred dollars annually, and in the case of a married man, shall be deemed to be three thousand dollars annually.” We do not think that this differs (except in the amounts stated) from the exemptions proposed in section 5 of the bill concerning which our opinions were required two years ago. The conclusions reached as to that provision, and the reasons therefor, are set out in the opinion filed January 7, 1930, to which you are respectfully referred. 1 In so far as the proposed deductions exceed $1,200 for a single man and .$2,000 for a married man, they go beyond what is permitted under the constitution.'

Elwin L. Page, orally, for the bill. Robert J. Peaslee. Leslie P. Snow. John E. Allen. Thomas L. Marble. Oliver W. Branch.

March 3, 1931.

1 See Opinion of the Justices, 84 N. H., p. 571.