treasurer the pro rata annual license tax for the unexpired portion of such year, treating all fractional parts of a month as a whole month. "Every foreign corporation shall likewise within ten days. after the date of its certificate of registration in this State, file its annual license tax return, and pay the pro rata proportion of the annual license tax for the unexpired portion of the then current year.' § 560. Virginia. "' 398 A corporation, whether foreign or domestic, is taxed like an individual on its property; it pays a license fee for the privilege of doing business; and it pays a "registration fee" or franchise tax. The personal property of a domestic corporation is taxed as capital stock. The commissioner of the revenue for the local taxing district "shall ascertain the value of all capital of incorporated joint-stock companies not otherwise taxed; but real estate belonging to such company shall not be held to be capital, but shall be listed and taxed as property, and not as capital." 399 On this property, in addition to the local tax, a State tax of forty cents on each hundred dollars is paid. 400 A license tax may be exacted for the privilege of doing business. This is a local tax.401 A license does not exempt from taxation the property used in the licensed business, nor the profits of such business.402 Mercantile corporations pay a license fee to the State, in lieu of all State taxes on the capital, upon the amount of purchases, as follows: 403 398 Ibid. § 51, 52. 399 Va. 1902, ch. 686, § 8, cl. 3. 400 Ibid. § 9. 401 Code, § 535. 402 Ibid. § 564. 403 Va. 1900, ch. 796. Where the amount is not over $1,000, . $5.00 10 00 .30 .10 In addition to the ad valorem property tax and the license fees for doing business "provision shall be made . . . for the payment by every domestic corporation, and foreign corporation doing business in this State, of an annual registration fee of not less than five dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars, which shall be irrespective of any specific license or other tax, imposed by law upon such company for the privilege of carrying on its business in this State, or upon its franchise or property." 404 561. Washington. There is no franchise tax. All real and personal property of the corporation is taxable. The Constitution provides that "all property in the State not exempt under the laws of the United States or under this Constitution shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law." 405 Every person residing in the State shall list for taxation "all his moneys, notes, accounts, bonds or stock, shares of stock of joint-stock or other companies (when the property of such company is not assessed in the State) franchises, royalties and other personal property." And the real and personal property of any corporation shall be assessed the same as other real and personal property.407 "406 Though there is no express provision for the valuation of a franchise, it should be taxed as part of the property of the corporation. "That the franchise is property cannot be questioned, and that, unless it is exempted from taxation, it is liable to assess 404 Va. Const. § 157. 405 Wash. Const. Art. 7, § 1. And see 1897, ch. 70, § 1. 406 Wash. 1897, ch. 70, § 8. 407 Ibid. § 20. ment, is equally correct. No argument is made here by counsel for plaintiff that any law of this state exempts franchises from taxation; but it is maintained by counsel that no statute can be found specifically providing a method of ascertaining the value of franchises, and their objection to this tax seems to be founded upon the absence of such provision for ascertainment of the value of franchises. . . . We can find no more practical difficulty in the assessment and valuation of a corporate franchise by competent officers under our revenue laws than in some other kinds of personal property which is taxed in this state. Some difficulty or perplexity arises in the valuation of much incorporeal property for taxation. It is concluded, therefore, that the franchise of plaintiff was properly assessed." 408 It was suggested in the later case that "One method of the valuation of the intangible property of the corporation, and a very fair one, is the market value of all the capital stock over and above the value of its tangible real and personal property. This method is approved by high authority." 409 6 But while the franchise and other intangible property may be taxed, and very properly by taking as a basis the value of the capital stock, it is improper to tax both the capital stock and the tangible property. That would be double taxation; "and, while it has been declared by this court that double taxation is not necessarily inhibited by our constitution,410 yet it was observed in Ridpath v. Spokane Co: 411 While the legislature may so adjust the revenue system as to occasion double taxation, such taxation will not be inferred unless necessarily imposed in carrying out the law.' The list made up by the assessor under our revenue law is upon the valuation of property. We think, when all the property into which the 408 Reavis, J., in Commercial El. L. & P. Co. v. Judson, 21 Wash. 49, 56 Pac. 829. 409 Lewiston Water & Power Co. v. Asotin County, 24 Wash. 371, 64 Pac. 544. 410 Commercial E. L. & P. Co. v. Judson, 21 Wash. 49, 56 Pac. 829. 411 23 Wash. 436, 63 Pac. 261. capital stock of the corporation entered was assessed, the valuation of the corporation's property was complete." 412 It was therefore held in this case that where all the property of the corporation is tangible property and is taxed as such, it is not possible to tax the capital stock. In addition to the tax upon the property of the corporation, a license fee is exacted of every corporation doing business in the State. "Every corporation incorporated under the laws of this state, and every foreign corporation having its articles of incorporation on file in the office of the secretary of state shall, on or before the first day of July of each and every year, pay to the secretary of state, for the use of the state, the following license fees: Every corporation having a capital stock, ten dollars. Every corporation failing to pay the said annual license fee, on or before the first day of July of each and every year, and desiring to pay the same thereafter, and before the first day of January next following, shall pay to the secretary of state, for the use of the state, in addition to the said license fee, the following further fee, as a penalty for such failure: Every corporation, two dollars and fifty cents. Every corporation failing to pay the said license fees and penalties on or before the thirty-first day of December of any year shall forfeit the sum of five dollars for every day which it shall continue to do business as a corporation, after said date, to be recovered in an action in any court of competent jurisdiction." 413 562. West Virginia. Corporations are taxed by the State and locally on their property within the State; and in addition a license tax is exacted of every domestic corporation and of every foreign corporation doing business within the State. It is provided by the Constitution that "taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State, and all property both real and personal, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, 412 Ibid. 413 Wash. 1897, ch. 70, § 5. to be ascertained as directed by law. No one species of property from which a tax may be collected shall be taxed higher than any other species of property of equal value. . . . The legislature shall have power to tax, by uniform and equal laws, all privileges and franchises of persons and corporations." 414 "He (the assessor) shall ascertain from the proper officers or agents of all incorporated companies in his district (except railroads, and foreign insurance, telegraph, and express companies) the actual value of the capital employed or invested by them in their trade or business (exclusive of real estate and property exempt by law from taxation), and enter the same in his personal property book. The real estate of such companies shall be assessed, and entered in the land book as in other cases. The value of the capital shall be estimated by taking the aggregate value of all the personal property of the company, not exempt from taxation, wherever situated, including their money, credits, and investments, whether in or out of the state, and deducting from the said money, credits, and investments, and not from said aggregate, what they owe to others as principal debtors. If a company have branches, each branch shall be assessed separately in the district where the principal office for transacting its financial concerns is located, or if there be no such office, then in the district where its operations are carried on. . . . When the capital of a company is assessed as aforesaid, the personal property thereof, which shall not be held to include the locks or dams of a navigation company, shall not be otherwise assessed, nor shall any individual shareholder or partner therein be required to list or be assessed with his share, portion, or interest in the said capital." 415 In addition to the property tax, all domestic corporations and all foreign corporations doing business in the State pay a license tax. Every corporation which has heretofore obtained or which shall hereafter obtain a charter or certificate 414 W. Va. Const. Art. 10, § 1. 415 W. Va. Code, ch. 29, § 64. |