The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1917-05-18
PRIVILEGE TAXES
ON MORTGAGES IS
SUBJECT COMMENT
INSISTED BY SOME THAT IT
ExEMPTS NOTES SECURED
FROM ASSESSMENT.
AUTHORITY SEEMS OTHER WAY
Little Words "ln Lieu Of All other
Taxes" Are Given Radically Differ
ent Meaning in the Discussion of
The Provision.

An item of taxation in the new rev
enue law that is causing no end OF
discussion is that which levies trans
fer tax upon mortgages. This tax,
like that levied upon transfers OF real
estate, must be paid to the county
court clerk before the mortgage is
entitled to registration. There is this
difference, the state tax on straight
realty transfers is only 10 cents hun
dred of the value of the property
while that on mortgages is fifteen
cents a hundred Of the face of the
mortgage. There is the further differ
ence that no tax at all is levied upon
mortgages of less than $1,000.
This item OF the revenue act of 1917
is as follows:
THAT prior to the recording by the
registers of the several counties of the
state of any mortgage or deed of trust,
or other instrument in the nature of a
mortgage or deed of trust, executed as
pledge, mortgage or conveyance in
trust of any real or personal property
situated in the state of Tennessee, or
any interest in any real estate or per
sonal property situated in said state,
to secure the payment of any indebted
ness, there shall be levied and paid
Of fifteen cents on each 800 or portion
thereof, of the amount of the indebted
ness so secured which tax shall be
collected by the clerk of the county
court of the county in which said prop
erty is located, and the county registers
ii the several counties of the state are
hereby required not to record any such
instrument until the clerk of the coun
~ court of the county in which said
instrument is offered for record, GER
lifies on said instrument that said tax
has been paid. Provided that this tax
shall not apply to loans under $1,000
1t is also provided that the tax shall
be paid by the owner or holder of the
Indebtedness and not by the maker OF
he mortgage.
Clerk Lipscomb, upon whom de
olives the duty of collecting the tax
las already collected upon number
If instruments and the tax promises to
yield the state substantial sum in
this county.
There is quite difference of opin
ion as to the meaning of the words
in lieu of all other taxes" as used in
the above quoted law. Some insist
hat this means that hereafter mort
cages, or rather notes, secured b.
and upon which this fiji
teen cent tax has been paid will not
be assessed by the tax assessor as
property. Heretofore a $500
tote, secured by mortgage would be
,ssessed, according to those who make
his argument, as personally and a tax
# SIS hundred or SIS a thousand
collected thereon. Now they insis;
hat the holder of the note secured by
mortgage will escape with one-tenth
Of that tax.
But legal authority is inclined to the
opinion that the taxation of mortgages
as a privilege and as prerequisite to
heir registration is simply an addi-
-ional tax and the words gin lieu of
all other taxes simply means that
neither the counties nor the cities can
evy a similar privilege tax In sup
port of this it is pointed out that a
transfer tax of 10 cents on the $500 on
zeal estate transfers does not exempt /
he real estate so transferred from
and taxation as other prop,
erty. And the clause of the revenue
bill making this levy has for years
declared that it was in lieu of all other |