Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1935-02-07

: the eleventh article of the SCI
thas paper from time to time,
From the standpoint of mainte-
nance of the State, perhaps the most
important bureau of the State De-
Government, is the State Tax Com
mission. This body consists of three
members appointed by the Governor
for terms of six years, only two of
which may be members of the same
political party. The law requires that
lone of the members shall be APP
pointed from the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, one from Western Mary
land and one from Baltimore City.
One of these is designated by the
Governor as Chairman of the Com
mission, and his salary is six thou
sand dollars, whereas the members
receive five thousand dollars each.
The term of one member expires
every two years.
This Commission was organized
pursuant to an Act of the Legisla-
ture of 1914 and took over the duties
of the Tax Commission, whose duties
were limited chiefly to the assessment
of shares of domestic corporations.
With the organization of the Tax
Commission the duties and jurisdic-
ton were greatly enlarged. The Com
mission is empowered to supervise
the administration of the assessment
and tax laws of the State and of
each County and City of the State.
The law is designed to obtain,
through the Commission an uniform;
ity in Assessment so that the tax
burden on property may be equitably
and fairly distributed, and the Com
mission is directed to maintain a
continuing method of assessment, so
that all property in the State may
be reviewed for assessment purposes
at least once in each five years.
The Commission appoints for each
of the Counties, a Supervisor of
Assessments, who acts as a Chief
Assessor for the County. The
assessments in each County are pri-
marty made by the County Commits
sioners of the County, but the Super
visor is authorized to appeal to the
State Tax Commission from, any
assessment made by the County Com
missioners. The Supervisor is. ap-
pointed from list of five nominal
tons made by the County Commits
sioners, and serves during good be-
havior, but may be removed by the
State Tax Commission "for incon-
potency or other cause. Supervisors
salaries are paid by the respective
counties, the amounts varying with
the taxable basis of the several coun-
ties.
In Baltimore City there is also a.
supervisor with important investiga-
tive duties. The City maintains an
Appeal Tax Court, but a right of
appeal to the State Tax Commission
is given to the State and also to the
taxpayer.
The State Tax Commission acts as
an appellate tribunal and appeals to
it may be taken by the Supervisor
or by the taxpayer from any assess
ment made by any County Board or
the Appeal Tax Court of Baltimore
City. There is no appeal from the
Commission except on questions of
law, its determination of any fact
being final. Where any question of
law is involved, there can be an
appeal to Court.
The Commission also has charge
of the chartering of new corpora
tions and the registration of foreign
corporations doing business in the
State. 1t collects what is called
Bonus Taxes from newly created cor
porations and also qualification fees
from the foreign corporations regis
tering in the State.
Every corporation organized in
Maryland, and every foreign corpo-
ration doing business in the State,
is required by law. to file with the
State Tax Commission, on or before
March fifteenth each year, report
ON forms furnished by the Commits
sion and from these renorts the Com
mission values the shares of stock of
the reporting corporations for tax
purposes, and certifies the assess
ments to the State Comptroller and
the tax collectors of the several coun-