The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1920-02-13
Eni0e Defends the State
Board of Equalization
Continued From Page ID

| tHdl oO,VuV,VVV.Uu' HIS pIopeTLy
now assessed at per cent of its al
tual cash value as admitted by TIL
company. The property of the count
in which this corporation is doing bus
mess, under the old assessment, wa
at about 25 per cent of its value.
the percentage rule had been apple,
and the assessment doubled for tn
entire county, this corporation woul'
have been assessed at $522,00000 in
stead of $5,OOO,O0O.OO. When the prop
erty of this company is brought t
100 per cent of it's value it will pa.
one-third of the taxes of the entire
county II the percentage rule hat
been applied, it would haYe paid APP
proximately one-twentieth of the taxes
of the county. In other words, the
honest taxpayers and owners OF
homes would have continued to pay
the taxes for this and other tax dodg
ers.
In Middle Tennessee, among others
is this striking case of large corpor'
alton. The proof before the board
shows that while the company is as
sessed on $4,000 acres of land 1t owns
$4,000 acres in this state, and so far
as the records show, 5000 acres of
this have never been assessed
Proof on file in this Office shows
that the entire property of the compa-
ny has an actual cash value in ex-
cess of $500, 100000 According to
these figures this corporation has
heretofore been assessed at 3 per
cent of the value of the assessable
assets. If the assessment had been
doubled by the percentage. rule on
the property of the counties in which
this corporation owns property the
property of other taxpayers in these
counties would have been raised by
doubling the assessment to about 60
per cent of their value while the prop
erty of this one corporation would
have been raised to six per cent of
its value. The record further disclos-
es in this case that this corporation
was not assessed on any personal prop
erty in the state, while as matter
OF fact it is the owner of several mil
lion dollars worth Of personal proper
ty. 1t is apparent that this personal
would not have been discov-,
cred and put upon the tax books by
the application of the percentage rule.
Many million dollars worth Of unas-
sessed property in the state have
been discovered, as the records of this
office will show and this property
which has heretofore ESCAPED taxa
ton has been put upon the tax rolls
which have been sent out to the coun-
ty taxassessors, and will, when this
assessment is completed, be found
upon the tax books assessed at its &C
tual cash value.
These comments on the percentage
rule are made at this time in verifica-
ton Of what this board stated in its
former publication, and is complete
and final answer to any who may have
a lingering prediction for the per-
method of making the assess
ments. Property which did not appear
upon the tax books could not be reach
ed by percentage assessment, and
would have continued to escape tax
alton. Property assessed all the way
from to 80 per cent of it's value,
would have continued to escape its
Just proportion of the burden of taxes.
The object of this board in publish
ing its former communication on this
subject was to secure the cooperation
of every honest taxpayer in the state,
and that is also the purpose OF this
The cooperation OF the
tax dodger is not to be expected, and
the opposition of all tax dodgers and
and retail dealers in fraud
ulent assessments is to be expected
No fair minded taxpayer will object to
the standard of actual cash value as
by the statute, and to the
of the assessments of all
in accordance with the con-
standard of equality and
throughout the state.
The state statistician, A. V. Lou
than, has done, and is doing, the great
est economic work for the state that
has been undertaken at any time in
It's history He has aided in the plan
ming and been charged with the duty
Of executing the plan of the board.
The board has exercised careful
over the work as it pro-
crossed and has been pleased to note
he steady growth of sentiment in ia
yor of the law, and in favor OF the
plans being carried into effect for its
execution.