| Show LEGAL OPINIONS IN THE assessment OF BANK PROPERTY the following opinion from the oily city attorney was read mr leonard assessor and collector dear sir you handed me yesterday the petition ofa of a number of the binks and tankers bankers filed with the city council sitting ait as an a board of equalization wherein they claim they have been discriminated against in the assessment for the year 1892 thea say bay the property of and the shares bares in said banks have been assessed higher than money and other capital in the hands bands ot of individuals and other corporations po rations 11 the intent intention ton of the law lit 1 that all capital and if property should be assessed equally the he statute provides that money shall be assessed as money that is in the actual amount of dollars dollar the taxpayer may have the above proposition depends entirely upon the facts facto the national banks as also their stockholders are especially krotec ed against any such discrimination by section revised statutes of the united states slates the facts should all be laid before the board of equalization and if it be found they are assessed as claimed it should be corrected and equall equalized equalised ted I 1 am informed the national banks claim a further farther exemption under the amend ment to section 2009 laws 1888 by the law of 1892 page adds to said section 2009 subdivision 13 in which mortgages and trust deeds are exempt from taxation the law of congress expressly forbids national banks from loaning money on real estate security and I 1 do not believe they can avail themselves of the law of 1892 by violating the law of congress Congre aFt and thus avoid the payment of a just tax if I 1 am correct in this they are not entitled to a reduction for or an exemption for paying taxes on any capital loaned upon real estate security the banks cannot take this advantage of their own wrong I 1 again repeat that tax laws and assessments sess ments should act equally on persons and property properly and that discriminations should not be made in any case section 2014 compiled laws 1888 provides that the property real and personal of corporations shall be asse assessed 0 a ed and the the tax collected to 10 the extent as s such u ch property was owned by individuals section 4 of the laws of 1890 which amends section 2023 of the revenue laws of 1888 provides among other things that blanks shall be furnished by the proper officer to each taxpayer who shall fill up with a statement of all his bin taxable property and return it A to the the officer shall shall leave leae this blank at the residence or place of business of the taxpayer which shall be filled out and returned return returned eW to the officer within twenty days from date of service and any person corporation firm or association who has ban been furnished furnish bol with a blank who neglects or refuses to return the t ame properly filled in with a list of taxable property of such person corporation firm or association as provided in said eaid section the officer must make an estimate ol 01 of the ie value of the property of such inch person corporation firm or association as provided in said section and the valuation so fixed must not be reduced by the board of equalization but may be increased I 1 take it this section applies to all the petitioning banks yr whether hether private or national if among the petitioners petition ers any of them have failed to make any such return as require required dby by the section above referred to and the assessor made the assessment apt an in said eaid section specified r I 1 do not think any reduction can be made or that such are on en ditled to relief As to the school question I 1 do donot not find any law jaw exempting property belonging lODging be to priva e schools from taxation the law covering exemption from taxation so 0 far as I 1 have been able to find Is contained in section 2009 first volume compiled laws 1888 subdivision 3 of said section which is as follows property owned by bv this territory or by any county city or school district is exempt 19 subdivision 4 refers to property used by any religious denomination as long as used for public worship and no income is derived this thin subdivision excludes the residence of the minister etc and makes it taxable in othar the parsonage is no exl MIA 11 I 1 understand that the property claimed as exempt in this particular cue case is residence property and used as such but is claimed as an exempt because situated on the same lot upon which the school building is in erected I 1 do not think this property is exempt from taxation the following la in the opinion of the city attorney on the question presented tuesday night by zion ziona a savings bs ba h k to the honorable city council sitting M a board of equalization of taxes for the city of salt lake gentlemen your honorable board at last evenings meeting referred to me the claim for a reduction of taxes made b by zions savings bank of this cit city wha which is in now before me it seems t the 1 e bank claims that they have been assessed at too high a figure that instead of having on hand band at the time of the assessment the amount of personal property for which it is assessed there was only on hand in cash and to that extent and that only in addition to the real estate and improvements should the bank be assessed section 2011 of the revenue law of 1888 makes shares of sto stock ekof of national banks asses ames sible to the shareholders section 2011 shares of stock in corporations po rations other than national banks when the same are taxable money and taxable bonds shall be listed etc subdivision 9 of 2009 exempts exema 8 chares of stock in corporations when the property of the corporation is taxable it t seems the property of the corporation po ration is taxable and is in fact really taxed in this case and such being the case reading the two sections tolt together ber the capital stock or shares of stoc stock representing the capital cannot be taxed it is further claimed that all the capital odthe of the corporation including the surplus except is loaned out and secured by mortgages and deeds of trust on property which is taxable and therefore t be the same is not taxable if this be true I 1 am of the opinion that all such stock or shares of stock would be if I 1 am not mistaken the council for sa the bank claimed that it was exempt from paying taxes on money held by the bank which has been deposited by custo I 1 on the ground that they were inde b af for the amount to the customers when money is deposited gene generall raft te the relation of debtor and creditor exilin as between the bank and cuRto customer raer tha taz money is the money of the bank and X fall fail to 10 find any law exempting an any such from taxation while in money in the poo session of I 1 the he bank any personal property other than money such as bank furniture etc t certainly assess assessable able E D attorney |
