Under the decisions in this Commonwealth a tax is not a "debt" although for certain purposes it may be treated as a debt. This matter was discussed fully in Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 193-194, decided in 1909. The court there said: "A tax, however, has uniformly been held in this Commonwealth not to be a debt.
He then stayed further proceedings, and reported the case. In the case of Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, in dealing with a generally similar assignment where, as in the present instance, the parties of the third part were designated as creditors of the assignor, this court held, after careful consideration and the citation of many cases, that a tax is not properly describable as a debt, and that the unit of government or the public officer to whom a tax is payable is not technically denominable as a creditor. The court said (201 Mass. at page 194), "The conclusion follows that neither the city of Boston nor its collector was obliged to become a party to the indenture of assignment by signature for the reason that its terms descriptive of parties did not properly include either."
795, 798 [ 20 P.2d 138]) and elsewhere. ( Brooks v. Marbury, 11 Wheat, 78 [6 L.Ed. 423]; Security Trust Safe Deposit Co. v. Farrady, 93 Del. Ch. 306 [82 A. 24]; Koch v. Streuter, 232 Ill. 594 [83 N.E. 1072]; Milholland v. Whalen, 89 Md. 212 [ 43 A. 43, 44 L.R.A. 205]; Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190 [87 N.E. 634]; Marquette v. Wilkinson, 119 Mich. 413, 414 [78 N.W. 474, 43 L.R.A. 840]; Martin v. Funk, 75 N.Y. 134 [31 Am. Rep. 446]; Skipwith's Exrs. v. Cunningham, 8 Leigh (Va.), 271, 272 [31 Am. Dec. 642]; A.L.I. Restatement, Trusts, sec. 36.) [8] A legatee is free to renounce even a beneficial bequest, so long as the rights of third parties are not involved. If, however, the claims of his creditors would thereby be defeated he cannot exercise the same freedom.
In case such peremptory injunction has issued against the bringing of actions against the receiver or against the owner of the property of which he is receiver, the holder of a claim liable to be tolled by the statute of limitations may seek relief by petitioning the court which appointed the receiver and issued the injunction for leave to bring an action at law or suit in equity, and to modify the injunction accordingly, or for leave to file an intervening petition for the establishment of his claim. Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 195. Old Colony Trust Co. v. Medfield Medway Street Railway, 215 Mass. 156.
A tax on real estate in its nature is not a debt but a monetary burden for the support of government laid upon the owner and secured by lien upon the real estate. It does not arise out of contract, express or implied; it operates in invitum. The consent of the owner is not required. Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 193. It was said in Richardson v. Boston, 148 Mass. 508, 509, touching the effect of the exercise of eminent domain on the real estate assessed, "The taking, of course, put an end to the city's lien upon the land, and to its right to sell it." It is a familiar principle that laws for the assessment and collection of taxes are to be strictly construed and that all doubts are resolved in favor of the taxpayer. If the right asserted in behalf of the tax or its collection is not clear, it must be denied; it must appear plainly from the words of the statute and cannot be sustained as within its spirit.
A simple remedy is furnished for the collection of a tax from the legal representatives of a deceased person notwithstanding the complications that might arise from the laws relative to the settlement of estates. Scollard v. Edwards, 194 Mass. 77, 78. Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190. Whiton v. Balch, 203 Mass. 576, 578. The record shows that the defendant as executrix has received over "sixteen thousand" dollars.
The form of procedure cannot change their character. See also Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 193; Gautier v. Ditmar, 204 N.Y. 20, 27. In nearly all of the tax cases cited by the Government in the court below, the question of interest was not before the court.
Commonly it describes only civil proceedings. Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 196, 87 N.E. 634; Pigeon's Case, 216 Mass. 51, 56, 102 N.E. 932, Ann. Cas. 1915A, 737."
City of New York v. McLean, 170 N.Y. 374, 63 N.E. 380; Matter of Maltbie v. Lobsitz Mills Co., 223 N.Y. 227, 119 N.E. 389. See, also, City of Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 87 N.E. 634. With the appellees and the property without the state, and the estate being administered in New York, the effort to collect a tax, for a political subdivision of Indiana, is repugnant to the settled principles of private international law, which preclude one state from acting as a collector of taxes for a sister state, and from enforcing its penal or revenue laws as such.
So, here, a debtor is "one who owes a debt", a person "correlative to (a) creditor". Webster's New International Dictionary. Hebert v. Handy, 29 R.I. 543, 72 A. 1102; Rooney v. Inheritance Tax Commission, 143 Kan. 143, 53 P.2d 500; City of Boston v. Turner, 201 Mass. 190, 87 N.E. 634; Hart v. Evans, 330 Ill. App. 385, 71 N.E.2d 546. Specifically it includes a bankrupt. Walser v. International Union Bank, 2 Cir., 21 F.2d 294; United States v. Pusey, 27 Fed.Cas. 631, No. 16,098.