The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-07


ISSUE and that it also receives a large
revenue from the taxation Of the gross
receipts of railroad companies, steam
boat companies, street railway compa-
MES, electric light companies and num-
Der of other similar corporations. Ard il
is we'll known that whenever any propo-
sition to levy a tax of this sort is made
in North Carolina the representatives e1
these corporations Immediately become
historical and declare that their ,operty
will be confiscated and that the necessa-
ry revenue should be raised cut of some
other interests.
But Pennsylvania is by no means alone
in this close supervision of corporations
1t is true that most of our present stat
ute was taken from the laws of that
State, and it is admitted by all that nc
State has more equitable tax laws thar
Pennsylvania, but the great manufacture
ing State of Massachusett in section g
of it's law taxing corporations provides
that every corporation chartered by the
commonwealth, or organized under the
general laws, for purposes of business or
profit, having capital stock divided into
shares, excepting banks whose shares are
otherwise taxable under this chapter
sioner, under the oath of it's treasurer,
complete list of it's shareholders with
their places of residence, the number OF
shares belonging to each. the mount Of
capital stock of the corporation. its Place
Of business, the par value and market
value of the shares on said first da? u
May ........ The tax commissioners shall
ascertain, from the returns or otherwise
frI,o mo rot IF tho SharaS nj
each corporation and shall estimate there
from the fair cash value of all OF said
shares.
every company, copartnership, or as
ISOLATION to be taxed under the proceed
ing sections SHALL when required, submit
it's books to the inspection of the tax COM
mission and assessors of the city or town
in which the same is located; and its
treasurer, agent trustee, superintendent
and business manager shall be subject to
examination on oath by the tax commits
sioners and assessors in regard to all mat
tiers affecting the taxation OF the same. "
And the State of Michigan in 1898 when
the State Tax Commission was establish
cd gave them authority ito examine
books, papers, accounts of any corpora
ton, firm or individual owning property
liable to assessment, general or specific
under the laws of this State, and any
officer or stakeholder Of any such corpor-
alton, and member of any such firm, or
any person or persons who shall refuse
to permit such inspection or neglect or
fail to appear before said board in re-
Spouse to its subpoena or testify, as pro-
vided for in this section, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanOr, ETC. AS result
of the operation of this law the assessed
valuation of personal property increased
from S142, 330,376 in 1899 to 1910, 997, 015
in 1900, and the total increase of real and
personal property was nearly $3.50, 000, 900.
The governor in his last annual message
remarks: 81 am satisfied that, if the
commission is not hindered in it's work,
this sum will De doubled at the end Of
another year" Perhaps Mr. Pou would
not care to have such result in North
Carolina, but we believe a large majority
Of the people would.
But Mr.. Pou's clients, the private COR
porations, are not agreed among them
selves as to what they want. The FL
nance committee of the last Legislature
was astonished by the totally opposite
positions taken by different representa-
tives of corporations. One gentleman
from High Point said that if he was re-
quired to make a statement in years
when the business of his corporation was
Improbable, it would ruin his corpora
ton. Another gentleman wrote from Will
mington: You will ind successful men
hate to let the outside world know il
they are making money. | had rather let
people know that my corporation had lost
money in the last twelve months than to
let them know ] had made money" And
an officer of another corporation in
Greensboro startled the committee by the
statement that he did not even let the
stockholders of his corporation know what
were the gross profits of their own bust
ness.
But putting all this aside we take issue
squarely with Mr. Pou and contend that
the recent changes in our tax laws con-
corning private corporations were. direct
ly for the purpose Of relieving these cor
porations from enormous taxation and
collecting a tax from them once and only
once on the actual value of their proper
ty. 1t is no argument against the reve-
nue. law to say that an individual may
build a mill alongside one owned by a
corporation and not be subjected to the
receive. Everyone who had given any
thought to the matter knows they must
and should be treated differently. Prof.
e. r. A. Sellgman in his recent exhaus-
tive essay on 1.-The Taxation of Corpor-
ations" sums up the whole matter in a
number of Conclusions" the first of
which is Corporations should be taxed
separately and on different principles
from individuals"
Mr.. Pou says: II have seen recently a
tendency to discriminate against the pri-
vate corporations" Let us see wherein
this discrimination exists The law of
1899 (section 39) Machinery Act and for
years prior required every private corpcr-
alton to list 1.-THE amount of it's capital
stock, 'The market value, or If no mar
ket value, then the actual value of The
shares of stock" 1.-THE value of all it's
real and personal property" The corpor-
alton was then permitted to deduct the
assessed value of it's real and personal
property from the value Of its capital
stock, land the remainder, if any, shall
be listed by the list taker in the nam, of
the company or corporation as capital
stock thereof" This is practically what
is required under the present law. But
how about the previous laws as Learing
upon stockholders? In addition to re-
quiring the corporation to pay on it's en-
4 f..n INIT o1 cfr> H..