The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-06-13
MORE ABOUT TAX MATTERS"

Editor Star: | had not intended
pursuing the personal property tax
matters further than my former let
ter, but as Mr.. Aver has seen fit to
make a further statement, which /
am unable to find any evidence for in
the assessment roll made up by him
and turned over to the collector, feel
that the public ought to be advised as
to the correctness of the statement in
regard to the assessment of the
Ocala National Bank stock and the
stock of the Irvine Crate & Basket
Company.
In the first place, the stockholders
of these corporations are not assessed
OH the books with stock in either of
these companies; and challenge the
gentleman to bring forth a copy of
the assessment roll for either 1918
or 1917 and show a dollar of stock
assessed to any one in either of these
companies.
In the second place, if such assess.
ment should be attempted, it would be
utterly illegal, and / think Mr.. Aver
ought to be advised of this, if he does
not know it; the statute under which
these assessments were made (Sec. 8
Chap. 5596 Laws of 19O7) applicable
to corporate stocks is as follows:
"The owner or holder of stock in
any Incorporated company doing bus
mess under corporate name shall not
be taxed for such stock; Provided,
that such stock is returned for. tax
alton by such Incorporated company,
and taxes are paid thereon by such
company, or the property of said cor
poration is assessed for taxes where
located, and taxes are then paid on
such property"
And we find for both years, 1917
and 1913. the Ocala National Bank
as well as the Irvine Crate & Basket
Company were assessed for taxes, and
paid on the property; it is therefore
idle and useless to argue that Ed
wards Brothers under the assessment
to these corporations paid on a GER
tain valuation. Edwards Brothers
should be assessed on their own per-
sonal property, owned by the partner
ship, and that only; they could not
be assessed on their corporate stocks
IN the above companies, after assess
ing the companies. So Mr.. Aver must
necessarily acknowledge this, or ad-
NIT he is not following the law.
What l particularly called the at
tention of the commissioners to, and
it had no direct relation to Edwards
Bros. any more than others, is that
there are persons in this county who
own not less than five hundred, and
ore or more at least a thousand, head
of cattle, as well as from one hun
dred to five hundred head of hogs,
WHO were not being assessed for a
single head; there are persons assess
ed with from ten to one hundred and
fifty head of cattle, who are publicly
known to own from five to twenty
times that amount; and what / called
attention to, without any intention of
rejecting upon any individual, or the
assessor in his official capacity, was
that Marion county was either losing
fifty thousand dollars a year in taxes
or few who were not able to pay it.
were making up this shortage, and
that it was only necessary to track
the law to get it on the books.
4 All that / asked for on behalf OF
my clients was that the property be
, assessed, and | assured the board, and
still assure the public, that if this
property is not put on the books
there is going to be a county wide
campaign to associate together the
!. tax dodgers, and defeat the whole
. assessment. Yours truly,
H. NJ. Hampton.