Evening star., 1915-02-08
MAY SEEK CHANGE
IN LEW|NG TAXES
Improved Method Regarding
Personal Property Likely to
Follow. Page Charges.
LAW, NOT ASSESSORS,
RESPONSIBLE FOR SYSTEM
Letters to North Carolina Represent
ative From Taxpayers Give Ex-
periences of Writers.

Improvement in the methods of levying
personal taxes in the District Of Colum-
bia may be sought through the joint ef-
fort of Representative Page, chairman OF
the District appropriations subcommittee
of the House, and the District Commits
sioners. as a result of the charges made
by the former on the floor of the House
Saturday that the present system largely
is based on guesswork.
1t was learned today that the subject
already had been discussed by Represent
ative Page and Commissioner Newman,
terminating in an agreement that the Dis
trict official is to arrangefor the install
lation of whatever administrative i'm
provements are possible at present. while
changes, if any, should be made in the
personal tax law.
At the District building 1t Is pointed
out that whatever criticism may be
made of the present method of assess
ing personal taxes should be directed
against the law and not the assessor
as that official is declared to have
open to him no course other than to
follow the law on the subject.
Says Assessors Guess Value.
Representative Pages principal criti-
cism was that the assessors in the abb
sence of an inventory, walk by a house
and make a guess as to the value OF
the personal property contained within
He claimed that he had been assessed
with penalty of 20 per cent for fall
ure to smake return on his personal
property and that it was the first no.
tice he had received from the board OF
personal tax appraisers in ten years
Investigation of the law governing
the subject reveals the fact that the
board is not required to mail inventory
blanks, and that it only gives out such
blanks upon request No such blank
was sent to Representative Page this
year. it is stated, but his property was
| assessed on the basis of return which
he voluntarily made a year ago, ac-
cordfng to officials of the assessor:
office. AS no return was made this
year by Mr.. Page, the usual 20 per cent
penalty was added, as is required b,
law in all such cases. E4Fss
Regarding the charge that guess
work Is resorted to when no returns
are made, members of the board of per.
sonal tax. appraisers admit that this ii
accordance with law. Assessments thus
established purposely are made high
SO that property owners affected will
appeal to the board This is the only
means. 1t is claimed, by which the
board. in many cases, can arrive ap.
proximately at the value of property
winch has not been listed by owners.
Provision Of the Law.
The law governing this feature pro.
vides That if the said board of per.
soilal tax appraisers be not satisfied
as to the correctness of the return Of
personal property made by any per.
son, firm, association. company. admin
istrator, executor. guardian or trus-
tee, said board may reject said return
and said board, or any of the members
thereof, may, from the best informa-
tion he or they can procure, or by MAX
ing such an examination of the per-
sonai property as may be practicable
assess the same in such amount as to
him or they seem just, and notice OF
the rejection of the sworn return
shall be given to the party interested
by leaving the same at the address
given in said return. and in all such
cases. there shall be right of appeal
from the action taken by said apprais-
peals hereinafter provided for. or te
their successors in office, within fif-
teen days after delivery of said notice
or rejection as aforesaid"
claim that their personal belongings
have been assessed too high are now
being made to the board of review
which will hold daily sessions until
am. and at 3 pm. Appeals should be
made by personal appearance.
Complaints of Taxpayers.
Representative Page today received
communications from several taxpay-
ers in the city giving experiences with
the personal tax assessment system
similar to that complained of by Mr..
Page in the House of Representatives
last Saturday. One of the communica-
tionS was from woman on Connecti-
cut avenue, who told the representa-
tive her tax bill had been mounting
upward without any addition by her to
the stock of personal property in her
house, and also without any call from
a tax assessor.
Another letter was from a man who
charged that employees of the assessor s
office are going about at night making
up personal tax returns for property
owners, for a fee. This letter offered
to give the name of an attorney or a
notary who had put the returns into
proper shape and had them sworn to.
Another property owner called on
Representative Page with a notice from
the assessor. The property owner said
he had filed a return of his personal
belongings with the assessor, and that
he had made an affidavit as to it's ac-
curacy before a notary.
Notwithstanding this, the board, he
said, had sent him a notice raising his
estimate by $500, and refusing to accept
his sworn statement; but no member of
the board of assessors, he said, had ever
visited his house.
THE trouble is Just as 1 pointed out
in the House." said Mr.. Page today,
there is not enough initiative in that
office No new legislation is needed to
cover the situation; all they need is
business methods. They can't go on guess
ing at the property people have, but
should give every property owner a
chance to make a return Then if the
returns under oath are wrong they have
the District attorney and the grand fury
to rely on for indictments for perjury"