Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-01-13
State Board of Health ................ l99,255 90
State Highway Comnission........... lS0,590 90

At present the courts have recogniZ
ed an assessment of AZ per cent of tn
| value of property as the rule. 1t i
! true that thus far this strict assess
ment has reached only the cotton mills
| the banks, the railroads, the merchants
and manufacturing plants generally
has not yet reached real estate. 1t cal
never reach accurately any form o
property where books are not kept o
where the value of property cannot b.
ascertained from other sources thai
the Taxpayers return. And by this
do not mean any reflection upon tn
taxpayer, for the ideas of taxpayer!
vary materially as to the value Of prop
erty.
This high tax rate has led to under
valuation of property. The state, th'
county, the school district and nunici.
pality each have 10 raise so much
money. The taxpayer knows that he Is
one among many who have to contrib
ute to this sum IS whole. He makes
his own return, and the smaller the
amount he places as the value Of his
property, the less will his taxes be, SC
we have an annual race of under val
uation TO escape the climbing tax
rate" and the losers are "the ignorant
the unwary, the helpless and the con-
scientious."
The total assessed value of all prop
erty in South Carolina is S4O2,S59, ,947.00
'(taxes of 1919 when land was assess
ed). OF this amount the tangible prop
erty amounted to S35O,0G2,426.O0 and
intangible property amounted TO ST.
413,340. am here using the W, IDS
tangible property" as referring to real
estate and visible personally such as
horses, mules, cattle. farm machinery
and other personally that can be seen
and touched" and by Intangible prop
erty" / mean notes. cash, non exempt
bonds, license taxes, inheritance taxes,
income tax or other source Of revenue
that cannot be seen or touched. The
definitions may not be strictly correct,
but they serve to make clear what fol-
lows
First as to the real estate. You have
often heard the statement made that
farm lands pay no taxes. There was
never greater error. The farm lands
may not be assessed at forty-two cents
as some other property, but Of the
$20S, t39, $4,000 of real estate it is estf-
mated that one-half or more Is farm
land. In its re-assessment of property
to get on the lone hundred cents bas-
is" North Carolina appointed three men
for each township and these men made
n personal inspection of every farm
and every acre of land and assessed it
at it's true value. To. this sinai. recur
later
3 The return of the personal property
is very irregular, to say the least. The
law requires that all watches, jewelry,
dogs, farming implements, etc., shall be
returned for taxation. But listen to
this as to inequality: Abbeville county
returned moneys and credits at $780,
10000; Laurens returned none. Abbe-
vile returned only three gold watches,
while Laurens returned 234. Colleton
county returned six watches and 3,171
dogs; Cherokee returned 373 watches,
but only Is dogs. Some of your read
ers know. of more dogs in Cherokee
county than were returned for taxa
tion. These items are picked at ran
dom. and the list of inequalities could
be extended almost to every article
returned for taxation with an equal va
Ration. Some counties adopted $4,000
as the value of a mule or horse and
$1,000 for a cow. Other counties have
only one-half this amount and some
arc higher. In 1915, when the state tax
commission was created, it found that
some of the banks were paying upon
assessments ranging from 18 to 67 per
cent of their taxable values, and there
was an actual variation in some coun-
ties of from twenty to sixty per cent.
In 1919 the merchants of the state paid
upon assessments varying from one per
cent TO one hundred and five per cent
of the true value of their property.
Now just a word as to the tax COM
/ was as prejudiced and as
violently opposed to it as any person
in the state. This was because / was
unfamiliar with it's work. Since its
creation it has worked with insufficient
means and inadequate forces, vet it has
substantial results for
the state and rendered good service in
equalizing the assessments as among
banks, cotton mills, merchants and the
lines it has taken up. During this pc
rOd it has placed upon the tax books
of South Carolina more than S70,00O,-
100000 OF property that was either un-
dervalued or escaping taxation entirely.
The intangible property in the state
was assessed at s7,413, 100000. 1t should
equal one-half at least OF all the other
property 1t is made to do so in other
states. In fact, in some states it is the
principal source of revenue. In the be-
ginning of this article | cited a section
of the constitution requiring all prop
erty to be assessed at its true value.
1t will be manifestIy unfair to assess