| Show ON THE TAX QUESTION before the salt lake county board cf equalization july 29 the petition of jonathan C royle boyle for abatement of taxes came up the petition was filed several days ago and was referred to the county attorney for his opinion the petition reads the undersigned undersigner under signed your petitioner claims that taxes have been aggee assessed against him on the following d des property to wit lot 2 9 block 34 plat F salt litke lake city survey that before said gaid property was var hessed to him on february 12 1890 he be had sold 14 conveyed said premises to fred W little that the assessment was not made for territorial county and school purposes until june Jun elnor 1 not has it yet been made for city pur pose 4 that before there was any valid assessments on said property he had bad conveyed ahe the same and and was waa not the owner thereof where wherefore fo re your petitioner prays to have have the tax list corrected by striking out said assessment on said lots JONTHAN JONATHAN C ROYLE cou nty attorney moyle submitted his opinion regarding the matter which was as follows P to sto the honorable the county court of salt sall lake county utah i gentlemen the time given for we me to report to you on the question when does a tax become a lieu lien upon real estate under our statute of 1888 is insufficient for a careful i and exhaustive examination of the subject but I 1 am very clear that such a lien attaches from the date of the assessment our statute fixes 1 this section 2012 page vol t q compiled laws of utah the difficult question is to determine when the assessment was made the decisions of the court are somewhat different in different i 18 states tates an assessment as the word is commonly employed consists in two processes listing the property persons etc to be taxed second estimating the sums ia n which are to be the guid guide i e in an wo of the taxes when this W is listing and estimates are completed cle ted in such forms as the law may have ave prescribed nothing remains to abe t be done in order to determine the individual liability but the mere arithmetical process of dividing the sum to be raised among the several subjects of fixation t in proportion to bithe 0 the amount which they are respectively ively assessed sometimes the word assessment is used as implying he completed tax list that is to say the list of persons or property to be taxed with the estimates with which t they are chargeable and the tax duly apportioned and extended upon it but this employment is unusual except tn in the cases in which the jeva jevy is apportioned by the benefits 1 iud in those cases the act of determining the amount of the benefits to is of itself undermost under most statutes a de k termination of the individual lia ability Ibi lity and its entry upon the roll is an extinction of the tax cooley on taxation page from the foregoing and other authorities which I 1 deem it unnecessary s to quote I 1 am of the opinion that when the assessor had duly listed the property in the name of the owner with its value attached we have the date of tile the assess u ment impractical as such a rule would seem to be unless an entry was made of record ou on such date which would seem unnecessary and unreasonable still the rule is well established that a tax shall not be cornea come a lien without express legis dative authority shall be strictly construed considering the uncertainty if 1 not the impossibility bill ty under our present circumstances of determining when the assessment was actually made and in the absence of any fixed legislative date I 1 am of the vinion opinion that the court if it dee deems ms it necessary nic nto essary to determine this question though I 1 am of the opinion hat bat it is u unnecessary necessary n shall take the date aste of the completion and filing of g i ahe assessment rolls ato asto the consideration of traps fers of real estate made after listing property I 1 will quote from cooley arty on ft taxation aaion page assess assessments ments fe made periodically and in many ly jdie states every year the cus CUB tomary ternary regulation is that the anses assessment ses shall be made or completed on a certain day or that it shall be made as on a certain day this fixes the liability of persons and property to taxation for the year there are some inconveniences and inequalities resulting from this but some regulation of the kind hind is indispensable A force of tax officers cannot be kept employed for the year watching the transfers of property the movements of persons the vicissitudes of business in cordei to equalize the changes upon them periodical assessments assessment ss if they produce injustice nj ustice in one case correct them in the next and on the whole are likely to be fair at any rate they constitute the best regulation the law jaw can establish in the imposition of taxes exact and critical justice and equality are absolutely unattainable if we attempt we might here divide the years yearns tax upon a given article of property among a dozen different individuals who at different times during the year and then be almost as far from the desired end as when we started the proposition is utopian T the he legislature must adopt some practicable system and this practicable system ay stem is found to be the one which has been indicated every person Is is therefore to he taxed for the year upon his estimated as to the time of the assessment and every parcel of land accord according ing to its value at that time subsequent changes cannot be noticed until another al assessment ses very respectfully J H MOYLE county attorney the petition of the eleventh school district which asked for a reduction of the special school tax and which was also referred was disposed of by the following report to the flono honorable rable the county mccurt of salt sall lake county 1 I have examined the petition of the eleventh school district asking for a reduction of their special school tax and report thereon as follows dehat SE hat the county court has not the power to reduce taxes as prayed for by said petitioner except in special instances provided for by our statutes s As a board of equalization the COU court rt can equalize taxes but it cannot change the tax itself J H MOYLE county attorney |
