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Show 18th Legislature of the State of Utah Special Session 1930 Btnte Caplfol : The Special Session of the Eighteenth Legislature of the State of Utah has convened to consider consid-er submitting Constitutional Amendments Amend-ments to the ' Utah Voters, that If adopted, will enable future Utah legislatures legis-latures to accomplish the Tax Revision Commission's recommendations, which are as follows: 1. All tangible property shall be taxed at uniform rates throughout the jurisdiction of the authority levying levy-ing the tax. 2. All Intangible property shall be classified for purposes of taxation. Preferably, the Intangible property shall be exempt from taxation as property, prop-erty, with the express provision that the income therefrom shall be taxed. 8. All business conducted for prof-It, prof-It, except Insurance companies, shnll be taxed at moderate uniform rate upon the net Income of the business done within the state. a. Insurance companies shall be taxed on tbelr net premiums. b. The present license tax on corporations cor-porations shall be repealed when the corporation Income tax becomes effective. effec-tive. AH other special taxes for state purposes shall be continued. 4. All residents of this state having taxable ability shall pay a direct personal per-sonal Income tax at moderate graduated gradua-ted rates. 5. The revenue which Is derived from the business tax and the personal per-sonal Income tax shall be devoted to the state district school fund, and the levy for state district school fund purposes pur-poses shall be reduced accordingly. 6. The present constitutional state board of equalization shall be abolished abolish-ed end a state tax commission created. a. The state tax commission shall assess all mines and public utilities. util-ities. b. Tbe state tax commission shall have power to equalise the valuations of any assessments within any county of the state and shall also have tbe power to equalize the valuations of classes of property between counties. e. On appeal of ten or more persons per-sons the commission shall review and correct any tax levies for local purposes pur-poses with a view to checking unnecessary unnec-essary expenditures. On appeal of ten or more persons the commission shall review any local bond issue and shall bring all of the facts involved to the attention of the taxpayers, together with tbe recommendations of the commission. com-mission. d. The administration of all special spec-ial taxes for state purposes shall be centralized In the nfflra nf tha mint. tax commission. e. The slate tax commission shall have authority to prescribe a system of uniform accounts for all local taxing tax-ing units and shall have power to enforce the use of such uniform accounting accoun-ting system. It shall also have power lo enforce suitable regulations for the preparation of all local budgets, and shall have authority to conduct regular regu-lar Independent audita of all local public accounts and to take the necessary nec-essary steps to safeguard public funds through the prosecution of all viola tlons of proper accounting procedure. 7. The legislature shall authorize a comprehensive study of expenditures, governmental organization, and business busi-ness methods In connection wltb the operation of the proposed plan of tax revision. In order to determine whether more economical method of handling the public business may be developed and for the purpose of securing a proper balance between state and local lo-cal revenues under the proposed plan of tax revision. AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION Having made the foregoing recommendations, recom-mendations, the Commission states that they cannot be made effective at all points nnder the present constitution, constitu-tion, and that the first constructive step toward tax equalization in the State of Utah must be the amendment of certain constitutional provisions relating re-lating to taxation. The two fundamentals contained In the proposed constitutional amendments amend-ments deal with (1) the classification of intangible property for taxation purposes and (2) centralized administration. admini-stration. In addition to these two main points a provision Is made that all revenue derived from any Income taxes which may be enacted shall be paid Into the state district school fund. There are some other minor points contained in these proposals which appeared ap-peared desirable to all the Commission but which do not directly affect the main issue Involved. .Experience in various states over , a long period of years has demonstrated demonstra-ted tbe Impossibility of taxing Intangible Intan-gible property in the same manner and at the same rates aa tangible property Is taxed. Consequently the separation separa-tion of tangible property from intangible intang-ible property is a fundamental necessity neces-sity regardless of the enactment of the contemplated tax revision plan. Indeed, not a single step toward Intelligent tax reform can be taken until the rule of uniformity is abolished. The necessity for adequate central supervision of a stute tax system has been shown again and again throughout through-out tbe United States, and those states which have the most successful . administrative systems Invariably have a centralized authority with sufficient suf-ficient resources and power to supervise super-vise the entire tax system. Governor Dern In his message to the Siecial Session states: "Although taxes in I'tab are not higher than in neighboring states, the burden of taxation tax-ation is at present unequally distributed." |