East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-05-18

centralized administration of the
law as to these corporations consti.
tutes the chief difference between the
taxation Of corporations and individ.
uals in New Hampshire.
A large portion Of the revenue thus
collected by the state is distributed to
the towns where the property of the
corporation Is located or where Its
securities are held. Under this ar
rangement the allotment to the town
by the state frequently exceeds the
/ towns share of the state expenses,
with the unusual result that the local
authorities collect and pay to the state
Hundreds of thosuands of dollars under
the general property tax, while the
state collects and turns over to the
towns hundreds Of thousands Of dol
lars collected from corporations, but
also based upon property.
The two largest items collected by
the state from corporations are from
railroads and savings banks, and
amount approximately to a half-mill-
ion dollars each.
A large part of the railroad tax
and practically all of the bank tax is
distributed to the towns by the state
The New Hampshire tax commits
sion of 1908 has recently sent in its re-
port to the legislature.
Vermont.
All of the expenses of the state gov
ernment in Vermont, approximately
million and half a year, are met by
the special taxation of corporations
and by other special taxes collected by
the state. The corporations are pay
ing approximately Sc per cent of the
total state expenses
The chief feature of corporate taxa
tion in Vermont is the policy Of pro-
vidlng in detail for important corpora
tions two methods of taxation and
permitting the corporation to elect to
be taxed under either provision. The
two systems have different bases, one
being property and the other receipts.
The purpose Of this alternative Is to
avoid raising a constitutional question
as to the taxation by the state of
receipts from interstate business. The
tax on receipts Is made attractive by
making 1t lower. and large number
of corporations elect to pay on this
basis, and are thus precluded from
raising the constitutional question
Another feature of the Vermont
system worthy of special note is the
tax based upon par value of capital
stock and applied to all corporations
in the state, domestic and foreign. ir-
respective of whether all the capital
stock Is employed in Vermont. This
provision extends also TO all unincor-
porated associations doing business in
the state, whether they have CAPITAL
stock or not If concern has no cap
ital stock, the tax is based upon the
deposits" In other words, the as
sets. While the rate of this tax is
low, the scope OF its application
namely, to all corporations or associa-
tions, domestic or foreign, doing busi-
ness in Vermont-is as wide as any
single provision of corporate taxation
known.
The important items of revenue. as
is usually the case in New England. |
come from savings banks and rail- !
roads.
The report Of the Vermont tax COM !
mission Of 1908 was recently submit |
ted to the legislature.
Massachusetts.
The total expense of the Massachu- |
'etts state government in 1907 was
$13,5OO,OOO. The re-
'eipts from the special taxation of
in Massachusetts, paid |
about Jne-third of this sum.
Massachusetts, is the only New Eng
and state which adopted a theory Of
corporate taxation at an early date
md has consistently adhered to 1t.
rhe corporation is taxed upon its real
state ana tangible property in the
ocality where the property is situat-
ID. just as property is taxed to ndi-
'iduals, and then the state tax COM
missioner estimates the value of the
apital stock of the corporation, de-
lucts therefrom the amount of pro-
,erty taxed by the localities, and taxes
ha pprDoro tip,, ,1pOr Tho rpci1no Co1l-