The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-16
WAR TAX DECISIONS.
A Number of Them Received by Com
 missioner Lake.


 A Number of Them Received by Com
 missioner Lake.
 A batch of decisions relating to war tax matters have just been received by Collector Lake from the treasury de- partment at Washington
 The department says that the assign ment of life insurance policy to se- cure loan is not an assignment of the instrument such as is contemplated un- der the clause of schedule A, taxing mortgages or pledges of personal prop erty, and does not require stamp to the full amount that was put upon the original instrument, nor in this case to any amount. When a policy of life in- surance is assigned as collateral securi- ty for loan exceeding one thousand dollars, it should be stamped as pledge according to the amount of the debt secured, and not according to the face of the policy.
 Exhibitions in elocution, given for money by persons for their own bene- Tt, whether in town halls, school houses, churches or other public edi- fees, and not merely occasional enter tainments given for the benefit of some church or Sunday school or public charity, are held to be among the pub lie exhibitions for which a special tax is required to be paid
 Petitions for the appointment of ad- ministrators, executors or guardians require no stamps. Bonds of adminis- trators, executors or guardians must be stamped. No stamp is required on a certificate of tax sale for unpaid taxes nor on the certificate of redemption from sale.
 The ordinary rent receipt is not taxa ble. If the receipt contains any phrase or clause that can be construed as a contract for hire, etc., it is taxable.
 Releases of mortgages and trust deeds are required to be stamped.
 The show of a medicine vender, con sisting of various athletic, humorous and comic performances, there being given also an exhibition or rope walk ing and trapeze performances the ob- ject being me:ely to attract a crowd, is liable to tax of ten dollars.
 A receipt or memorandum given by warehouse man, or any signing by a warehouse man of an express compa- ny's book or other receipt evidencing the the fact that goods have been placed in storage, is warehouseman's receipt and requires stamp tax of twenty-five ents. The commissioner of internal revenue, is is held, cannot decide whether the warehouseman or the pr- vate individual storing the merchan- disc shall affix the stamp. If there is any controversy the remedy is the courts.
 Exhibitions and shows given on fair grounds but not under management and col trol of the fair association hold ing a special tax stamp, are required to pay a separate tax.
 If a deed does not grant, assign, transfer or convey to the purchaser any lands, tenements or other reality, but only the right to burial to erect monuments, etc., 1t does not require a stamp.
 A lawyer can make investments for clients without being liable to pay a brokers license, unless he does it to such an extent that it can be called a business.
 Social clubs open only to members are. not required to pay the special tax on billiard tables, but if liquor is sold to members they are liable to special tax as retail liquor dealers. A lecturer using a stereopticon to H. lustrate his lectures and charging an admission fee, Is liable to the special tax of ten dollars on h public exhibi- tion or show for money If an exhibi- tion is given in more than one state the law requires payment of special tax for every such state and that a sepa- rate stamp shall be taken out for every | such state.
 Persons who have qualified as manu- | facturers of tobacco for the sole pur- pose of handling and dealing in stems, refuse scraps, cuttings, clippings and sweepings of tobacco, are required to l pay the minimum rate of special tax, six dollars, imposed on manufacturers | of tobacco.