Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-02
Every Foreign Company 0p- erating in Arkansas lii lii
 cluded in Suit.
BIG J JUDGEMENT ASKED
'';3rse Made That Companies lieiat- cd Sj2tgse of is10. Which
 Faxed Premiums.

Little Rock, Aug. 1-Allegins that
 the deIeh laut companies had failed
 10 make proper compliance with the
 avs of the Sta,e relative 10 the tax
 ajion of their receipts in Arkansas,
 the Sta'e Of Arkansas, through At- tofnfy General NorWood and Assist- &nt Attorney General Rec5or, aided by \. W. Bobyne, as special counsel today filed su | in the Pulaski Cfan- aerN Cour against 130 old-!ine 1n- sIfance companies for back taxes amounting to S4,250,0 0,0oo, alleged 70 have accrued since 1878.
 Tie suit includes DIE ctically every o.d-llne foreign insurance company opera ing in the state, and the iudg- mem asked 5 the largest ever peti- toned ter in the seuth, in a com plant tor back taxes The iudg- ment asked does no, include inter- est.
 In the complaint it is charged that tlf foreign companies, operating un- der statute of 1873, have to large extent eVad6d tae payment of the li- cense tax, which is 3 per cent of the ent re amount of premiums received Ill the State. It IS further charged Una. the statute Of 1875, fixing a property iaX of 1-2 per cent upon the net receipts of the foreign and domestic companies operating in Ark ansas, has been repeatedly violated by the foreign companies, and that they nave taken credits that did not belong to them in making their re- lurn to the State on their ne re- ceipts
 Of the companies sued, SS are fire insurance companies and 42 are life insurance companies. The largest suit is against the New York Life h. suranae Company, which is sued for $342.00 in alleged back taxes Other large amounts asked and compan es affected are as follows:
 Mutual Life, $264,51791; Equitable Life, $249. .192.21; Massachuset s Mu- tual, s7S,265.G9. and Metropolitan Life $53, 545.00.
 Fire insurance companies, incud- ing tornado, etc. Home Insurance Co.,, $5S 13992; H.rford Fire, s9o,- 3G5.S2; Aetna Fire, $57,14l76; Co1n- mercial Union Assurance Company of London, $l5,655.51; German -Ameri- can Lie, S43,47197; Insurance Con- Dany of North America, $42,155.67; Connections Fire, $36 149.02.
 Accident companies; Fidelity and Casualty Company, $16.o14.S0; Stand
 I'd C2mEany, $14.665.00; Maryland Casualty, $S,152.e0.
 The eases will probably come on fer hearing in Ssptember
 in discussing the suits, the attorney general made the following statement:
 The contentious of the sta e are that all foreign insurance companies are annually liable for the payment of two species of taxes one a prop erty tax on it's gross recei pts, less losses and commissions, and the other a privilege tax on it's gross receipt, no deductions Wha ever. A great majority of the companies have paid the property tax of 1-2 per cent on a part of their net receipts In paying this tax, however, a large of the companies in addition to deducting losses and commissions from their gross receipts have also deduced funds and rebates. The state contends that these deductions were unlawful and judgment is asked for a 1-2 per cent tax thereon.
 "The privilege tax, which is fixed by the Act of 1873 at per cent on the entire amount of premiums re- ceived, has not been paid by any of the companies since 1880, which is as far back as we have gone in exam ming the records. Tte Legisla ture 1 of 1873 provided for the payment of these two kinds of taxes by foreign insurance companies, one a tax on property, and the other a tax for the privilege of doing an insurance busi- | ness in this state. In 1875 the prop srty tax was changed and instead of he property being subject to the gen. eral state and county levies, levy of ? 1-2 per centum was provided. i This latter act did not repeal the act the payment of privilege tax of 3 per cent. The latter act can be construed only as a property tax, because to construe it otherwise would be to exempt property from taxation, which is contrary to the 
 The legal machinery of the insur- ance companies, which went through such a siege in the great Antitrust War of 1899, is preparing to contest the payment of these back taxes t2 the limit They contend that they 70 not owe the amounts sued for.