Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-07-02
THE CHANGE IN THE TAX LAW.

The General Assembly, at its last session,
passod "an act to reduce all acts and parts OF
acts providing for the assessment and taxation
of property into one act, and to amend the
same" This act was approved on March 49,,
1874, and makes some important changes in
the previous laws regulating the assessment
of property for taxation. These require to
be understood, at once, by the taxpayers, as
the returns of all property for taxation, for
the year 1874-75, must be made between the
first of July and the twentieth of August of
the present year.
AS in the old acts, all real and personal
property must be valued for taxation at its
true value in money, which shall be held to
be the usual selling price of similar property,
or at what could be obtained for the property
at fair sale; but, when the County Auditor
(Sec. 54) makes any addition to the valuation
of any property, as returned to him by any
taxpayer his agent or other person, "wratten
notice shall be given by the auditor to such per-
son at least fifteen days before the meeting Of
the board of Equalization" This will, it is
hoped, tend to remedy crying abuse of the
old tax system. 1t was then usually found
that County Auditor added, at his caprice,
large sums to the valuations made by the tax
payers, who, in general, knew nothing of the
fact until it was too late to obtain any redress.
They were kept in the dark, and the first light
vouchsafed them was when they offered to pay
their taxes, and found that the amount was
much larger than they had expected. Re-
turns Of property for taxation are made on
oath +; and it is only just and reasonable that,
where it is intended to challenge that oath
and the correctness of the valuation, due
warning should be given the taxpayer that he
may prove the correctness of the return and
avoid an excessive assessment. This is the
theory of the amended tax law. A taxpayer
must return his property "at its true value
in money" and the Auditor must give him
notice if any addition to the valuation is pro-
posed to be made. The taxpayer can then go
before the County Board of Equalization, who
have power to reduce the valuation of such
property as may prove to be returned above
its true value; and from the decision OF this
board an appeal lies to the Comptroller.gen-
eral Of the State
The constitution of the County Boards of
Equalization is entirely changed by the new
law of March 19, 1874, except in the case Of
the City of Charleston, which continues to
have its special board. Formerly the County
Boards consisted of the county Commission
ers, County Auditor and County Treasurer.
1t is now required that "the Judges Of the
Circuit Courts of the State shall, on or be-
fore the first day of July next, and every
fifth year thereafter, appoint three intelligent
tarpaying citizens in each of the counties
of their respective circuits, who, with the
County Auditor and County Treasurer, shall
form county board for the equalization of
the property of their respective counties" In
stead of three County Commissioners, there.
fore, there will be three selected citizens, and
the requirements of the law are so plain that
there can be no excuse for the failure to ap-
point persons who will do their duty intelli-
gently and without fear or favor. They must
be "intelIigent," and they must be taxpayers; );
and, as they serve for five years, it is of the
first consequence to the taSpaying classes that
the nominees Of the Judges be persons Of the
right character for probity and ability. The
powers of the county board are, however, linn
tied in this, that while the board may raise
the valuation of some pieces Of property and
reduce the valuation of others, "they shall not
reduce the aggregate value of the real and
personal property Of the county below the ag-
gregate value thereof, as returned by the
County Auditor, with the addition made there
to by said Auditor, as hereinbefore required" !"
To take an extreme case as an illustration !:
In county where the total valuation is S10,-
100000, the County Auditor adds, for ex-
ample, s2,OOO,OO0, making total of s12,
100000, and the County Board, though they
can raise the valuation Of the property of A,
and reduce the valuation of the property of
B, cannot reduce the aggregate valuation be-
low Sl2,00O,OO0. This is an oppressive pro-
vision of the law, and limits within compar-
atively narrow bounds the usefulness of the
County Boards but these can still accomplish
much good, especially as the citizen members
will remain in Office for FIVE years.
These are times in which the taxpayers are
thankful for small favors. The requirement
that they have notice when it is intended to
assess their property at more than its value is
a decided gain but the value Of the change,
after all, will mainly depend on the Circuit
Judges, with whom it lies to nominate ma
jority of the County Boards, to whom appeals
will be made. Charleston Ne,cs