202 
TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—RHODE ISLAND. 
the amount of state and county taxes, on all objects, 
persons, and property taxable for state or county pur 
poses. The tax on trades, professions, and occupa 
tions, or on single freemen, is not to be less than $1. A 
poll tax may be levied in lieu of the occupation tax. for 
school purposes. 
LEGISLATION AFFECTING REVENUE LAWS: 1913. 
An important act was approved May 15, 1913, having for its 
purpose the classification, in cities of the second class, of real 
estate, for the purpose of taxation, into two classes, to wit: 
the buildings on the land and the land exclusive of buildings, 
and by providing for the assessment of a less tax upon the 
buildings than upon the land exclusive of the buildings. It 
is as follows: The city council must, in determining the rate, 
assess a tax on the building as follows: In 1914 and 1915, 
“A tax upon the building equal to tk of the highest rate of 
tax required for said years.” This rate is to be decreased 
until, in 1925 and in each succeeding year the rate will be 
equal to t<t of the highest rate of tax required to be assessed. 
In other words, after that date the land will bear two-thirds 
of the taxation and the buildings one-third. 
It was provided also that certain classes of personal prop 
erty were made taxable for county purposes and in cities coex 
tensive with counties for city and county purposes at the 
rate of 4 mills on the dollar, as follows: “All mortgages; all 
moneys owing by solvent debtors, whether by promissory note, 
or penal or single bill, bond or judgment; all articles of agree 
ment and accounts bearing interest; all public loans whatso 
ever, except those issued by this commonwealth or the United 
States, and those made taxable for state purposes; all loans 
issued by any corporation, association, company, or limited 
partnership, created or formed under the laws of this common 
wealth or of the United States, or of any other state or 
government, including car-trust securities and loans secured 
by bonds or any other form of certificate or evidence of in 
debtedness, whether the interest be included in the principal 
of the obligation or payable by the terms thereof, except such 
loans as are made taxable for state purposes; all shares of 
stock in any bank, corporation, association, company, or lim 
ited partnership, created or formed under the laws of this com 
monwealth or of the United States, or of any other state 
or government, except shares of stock in any bank, corpora 
tion, or limited partnership that may be liable to a tax on its 
shares or its capital stock for state purposes under the laws 
of this commonwealth, or relieved from the payment of tax 
on its shares or capital stock for state purposes by the laws 
of the commonwealth; all moneys loaned or invested in other 
states, territories, the District of Columbia, or foreign coun 
tries ; all other moneyed capital in the hands of individual 
RHODE 
Rhode Island depends, for its state revenue, on the 
general property tax, the tax on corporate excess, 
on participation accounts and bank shares, on the 
gross earnings tax on public service corporations, and 
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following 
sources: 
The General Laws, Revision of 1909. 
The Laws of Rhode Island from 1909 to January session, 
1913. 
Report of Roard of Tax Commissioners, 1912. 
citizens of the state; all stages, omnibuses, hacks, cabs, and 
other vehicles used in transporting passengers for hire, except 
steam and street passenger railway cars, owned, used, or pos 
sessed within this commonwealth by any person or persons, 
or by any corporate body or bodies; all annuities yielding 
annually over two hundred dollars.” 
“All scrip, bonds, or certificates of indebtedness issued by 
any and every private corporation, incorporated or created 
under the laws of this commonwealth or the laws of any other 
state or of the United States, and doing business in this com 
monwealth, and all scrip, bonds, or certificates of indebtedness 
issued by any county, city, borough, township, school district, 
or incorporated district of this commonwealth ” were made 
taxable at the same rate for state purposes. 
The provisions of this act do not apply to bank notes or 
notes discounted or negotiated by any bank or banking insti 
tution, savings institutions, or trust company; to building and 
loan associations or to savings institutions having no capital 
stock; to fire companies, firemen’s relief associations, life or 
fire insurance corporations having no capital stock, secret 
and beneficial societies, labor unions and labor union relief 
associations, and all beneficial organizations paying sick or 
death benefits, or either or both, from funds received from 
voluntary contributions, or assessments upon members of such 
associations, societies, or unions. 
Companies which are liable to the tax on capital stock for 
state purposes are not required to pay this tax on mortgages, 
bonds, and other securities owned by them in their own right, 
but are required to pay it on such securities held by them as 
trustees, executors, administrators, guardians, or in any other 
manner. 
Property taxable under this act for county or for city and 
county purposes is not taxable for any other local or state 
purpose, and property taxable for state purposes is not taxable 
for county, school, or other local purposes. 
The duties of the board of revenue commissioners in equal 
izing the assessment of taxes for the use of the state among 
the several cities and counties were abolished by this act. 
Another important law passed by the legislature of 1913 
was that which placed a tax of 2i per cent on the market 
value of each ton of anthracite coal produced in the state. 
This tax is distributed one-half to the state and one-half to 
the county in which the coal is produced, the latter being 
divided among the cities, boroughs, and townships of the 
county, based on population. (The question of the constitu 
tionality of this law is now pending in the courts.) 
Several changes were made in license fees, but none of great 
importance. A new license fee was imposed on persons or 
firms advertising or representing goods to be from stock of 
bankrupt firms of not less than $100 or more than $200 per 
month in cities, incorporated towns, and boroughs, and of $25 
per month in townships. 
ISLAND. 1 
on the tax on oyster ground leases. The revenues 
from these taxes, except that on general property, are 
for state use only. The state also participates in cer 
tain business taxes, licenses, fines, fees, etc. The 
state receives one-fourth of the revenues from liquor 
licenses. 
There is a local poll tax of $1 in lieu of other taxes 
upon persons whose taxes do not amount to $1. 
There is no inheritance tax.