Show THE NEW REVENUE LAW in this houe if sue appear the revenue law passed by the last legislature which we publish in i response to numerous requests re the printers copy was carefully compared with the original on file in the office of the secretary of the territory and made to exactly correspond therewith we make this explanation partly in order that it may be known that the ity for the grammar gramas and rhetoric of the statute does not rest with this office it will be noticed that the old revenue law is amended so as to provide for a tax of two instead of three mills for territorial purposes and a maximum tax for county purposes of three instead of six mills these changes win are in the direction of reduced taxation but are partly offset by the power given to county courts to assess a tax for schoorl school purposes not exceeding two mills the territorial school tax of three mills remains cremmins unchanged und U ader er the old la law w territorial rW atod aind county taxes might have bet be u made to aggregate twelve mills as follows follow territorial three mills territorial school three mills for county purposes maximum six mills under the new law the maximum of lall all these including the county school tax newly provided for is ten mills or one er cent this is not a high maximum for all the purposes named but it should be borne in mind that it does not include district taxes for schools which are provided fur for in the school law cikor does it of course have anything to do with city taxes f 4 i while the rate of taxation has been reduced reduce di the new law aims to secure a more complete assessment than the old one did every taxpayer is required to swear to the truth of his statement of tax able property and should lie fall fail or refuse to do so the assessor may set net him down for as large an amount as he WRY may choose which must not be reduced but may be increased by the board of equalization thus a to taxpayer ax payer failing to furnish a sworn statement and having taxable property to the amount of 1000 may be set down as worth ten times as much or any other sum and the rating given him by the assessor must not i be reduced he is at the mercy of the assessor should he fall fail to furnish the sworn list ot his bis property some of the states have similar provisions but the wisdom of such legislation has been much discussed and to id certainly open to question As an additional precaution looking to a full assessment assessors are made liable on their bonds should they wilfully assess property at less than its cash value in another place the cash value valde of property is defined ned to mean the mount amount a at which the property would be taken in payment of a just debt due from a solvent debtor while the requirement to assess pro property potty at its cash value is couched in mare stringent langu language ake than was u used d in the theold old law the real difference to is mom moral rather than legal the assessors have the same discretion as formerly in estimating values and it to is impossible to take it from them and very difficult to convict them themos of wilful under kalua tion if they maintain approximate uniformity the price at which a man would receive a piece of property in liou lieu of mob cash in payment of a claim would almost Always be lessof les soften tea considerably less than that at which a man would h hold old it in attempting to 0 sell ben it from motives of profit the definition of cash value above quoted may consistently be observed by assessors in connection with booms it was evidently put in the law for the purpose of producing an effect in the direction of conservative valuations by as sensors ses sors the language of section 11 of the act which creates section of the compiled laws is well nigh unintelligible it prescribes how property shall be sold for taxes or rather attempts to the meaning of it Is that the delinquents personal property shall first be levied upon a and nd exhausted before the real estate tate can be sold sections 5 and 6 of the set act which create what are to be known as sections and of the he compiled laws aim to CO confer fer punitive powers upon asse assessors the latter are authorized to assess aweas at double its value property attempted to be concealed 0 or removed for the purpose of avoiding the tax and pro property pe arty wh which lob th through ro ugh f fraudulent ra ud means escaped taxation the previous year it to la hardly necessary to observe that in this cannot be punished for fraud or any other offense Tense of by a pecuniary penalty until they have been duly tried and convicted the poland law names the courts courte which have power to i hear try and determine both civil and criminal cases and assessors are am not therein designated as aa judicial officers they have no right therefore fore to decide whether or not fraud has freen pen botu committed witted and as aa the act provides provided pro videe no means nor procedure by which to test such an aim issue the provisions last above referred to may be regarded as inoperative and a dead letter an assessor will be safe in assessing in the usual way such property as he tay may find but t he will not be safe in constituting himself accuser judge jury witness etc for the purpose of convicting a taxpayer of fraud him |