Pulled out old empty case, angry about purchase tax (9)

'pulled out' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I don't understand how one could define the other.

'old empty case angry about purchase tax' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'old' could be 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime) and 'ex' is present in the answer.
'empty' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. on guages) and 'e' is found in the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for 'circa') and 'c' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?