The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-09
TAX DODGERS.
How People Attempt to Fool the
Assessors.

AOW 9OOP40 61IJempJ TO FOOL Ln8
Assessors.
The recording angel will be kept busy
working overtime as soon as the assess
ors begin their work. He always does
a proverbiaI land Office business dur
ing March and April, keeping track Of
the departures from the truth made by
men in telling the. assessors how much
they are not worth. Our system OF
assessment is the cause of more per-
jury than the prohibitory law in coun-
ties where an attempt is made to en-
force it, and according to the arguments
of some people, this ought to be ground
for a change of systems
If there could be some way of COM
bining the business of assessing with
that of a commercial rating agency,
either there would be a great increase
in the aggregate assessed valuation OF
property or the commercial standing Of
some men would take a great tumble.
For instance, if people would make the
same statement concerning their prop
erty to the assessor that they do to the
Dun agency the amount set opposite
their names on the tax rolls would be
increased several hundred per cent.
One of the favorite methods Of dodg-
ing assessment by people who have
large bank deposits is to draw most Of
their money out of the bank about
February % and send it off to bank in
some other city, 1t is left there until
after March l, when it is again brought
back. It is very easy for people with
deposits in Kansas banks to send their
money to Kansas City for a few days,
and as long it is in Missouri on
March 1 it escapes taxation in Kansas,
and is not caught for taxation in Mis-
souri,.
Another method is to invest the
money temporarily in government
bonds, if they can be secured, and as
l. l.
escape taxation. But this does not al
ways work, for the bonds cannot al
ways be secured.
One of the great evils which assessors
have had to contend with in the past
has been the assessment of feeding cat
tie held by large feeders. Many cattle
men have managed to have their cattle
on the move on March l, perhaps from
one pasture ground to another. They
may move them simply a few miles
from one county over into another, but
in this way they are not in any special
township on March 1, so that no asses
sor gets them on his list. Hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of property
has escaped taxation in this manner in
the past, but the last legislature rem
edied the trouble.
Hereafter if any cattle are brought
into Shawnee county after March 1 and
before September 1 on which no taxes
nave been paid, they are subject to tax
alton in this county, and it is the duty
of the assessor in the township in which
the cattle are located to report them to
the county clerk for listing on the tax
rolls. If an attempt is made to get
them out of the county before this can
be done it is the duty of the assessor to
report the facts Immediately to the
county attorney, and the county at
torney must at once levy on the cattle.
This amendment to the taxation laws
does not mean much to Shawnee county
but it means great deal to some of the
western counties, where the most of
the taxable property consists of large
herds of cattle which are moved about
from range to range.
The only way in which assessment
and taxation can be equalized is to
place a penalty on assessors which
shall compel them to assess property at
its full face value, and also to devise a
plan which will compel rich men to
list all their property and thus pay
their proportion of the taxes. At pres
ent men with large stocks of rnerchan-
disc and other property which cannot
be concealed have TO bear more than
their share of the burden of govern
meat, while capitalists''-some of them
find a way of evading the assessor.