TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—VIRGINIA, 
243 
The grand lists are to be made up by appraisers appointed 
by the commissioner of taxes. Methods of assessments and 
collection shall be the same as in towns. 
No state highway or school tax, and no taxes voted by the 
general assembly shall be assessed to unorganized towns and 
gores. 
Supervisors appointed by the governor shall collect the 
taxes and turn them over to the state treasurer, except county 
taxes. 
The revenue derived from the organized towns and gores, 
after the expenses of administration are paid, shall be used 
in the laying out, construction, and maintenance of highways 
and bridges in those districts, under the direction of the state 
highway commissioner. 
Act 50. Repeals section of public statutes which allowed 
railroads to pay taxes on their gross earnings. 
Act 52. Repeals section of public statutes which allowed 
steamboat, car, and transportation companies to pay taxes on 
their gross earnings, and provides that such companies shall 
pay a tax of 3^ per cent on their property. 
Act 53. Sleeping, parlor, and dining car companies shall 
pay a franchise tax of 1£ per cent on their capital invested 
within the state. 
Act 54. Express companies shall pay a tax of $20 per mile 
of line over which they transport express matter for hire 
within the state. 
Act 55. Telegraph companies shall pay a tax assessed on 
their property and corporate franchise of 05 cents per mile of 
poles, and one wire, and 56 cents per mile for each additional 
wire. 
Optional, such companies may pay 4£ per cent of gross earn 
ings in lieu of preceding tax. 
Act 56. Repeals sections of public statutes relating to taxa 
tion of telephone companies, and substitutes: Telephone com 
panies shall pay a tax of 1J per cent upon the appraisal of 
their property made by the tax commissioner. 
Act 57. Repeals acts relating to taxation of building and 
investment companies. 
Act 58. Charter fees charged: For filing articles of associa 
tion, not providing for capital stock, $25; with capital stock 
not exceeding $5,000, $10; $5,000 to $10,000, $25. 
Act 60. Includes wife or widow of a son or husband of a 
daughter among those heirs exempted from payment of an 
inheritance tax. 
Act 76. To consolidate the various school funds and appro 
priations and to provide a more equitable distribution of the 
same: 
A “ legal school ” is any public school maintained at least 
150 days including holidays and others allowed by law. 
The receipts of the 8 per cent state tax, the revenue from the 
interest on the permanent school fund, and $50,000 appropri 
ated annually is to be consolidated and distributed among the 
various towns, unorganized towns and gores, for the en 
couragement of education. 
Act ISO. License for selling oleomargarine to be $25. 
Act 187. License for pawnbrokers, fee, $15, regulated by the 
towns. 
Act 257. Public accountant, registration fee, $25. 
Act 213. Veterinarians, registration fee, $5; annual license 
fee, $2. 
VIRGINIA. 1 
The revenue laws of Virginia were extensively re 
vised in 1903, pursuant to the provisions of the new 
constitution which went into effect July 10, 1902. The 
principal features of the revenue system are set forth 
in Article XIII of the constitution, cited below. 
The general property tax is used for both state and 
local purposes. The franchises of railroads and canal 
companies are taxed for state purposes only. There 
is an extensive system of state license taxes, which 
supplement the general property tax. Towns and 
cities may be authorized by their charters to levy 
licenses. There is also a poll tax and taxes on col 
lateral inheritances, incomes, wills and administra 
tions, deeds and contracts, and on suits. 
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS. 
ARTICLE XIII. 
Sec. 168. All property, except as hereinafter provided, shall 
be taxed; all taxes, whether state, local, or municipal, shall be 
uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial 
limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and 
collected under general laws. 
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following 
sources: 
Tax Laws of Virginia, 1910. (A pamphlet compiled under 
the authority of the auditor of public accounts.) 
The Code and the Session Laws down to 1912. 
Report of the Virginia Tax Commission, 1911 (appointed to 
make an investigation of the system of assessment, revenue, 
and taxation then in force in the state). 
Sec. 169. Except as hereinafter provided, all assessments of 
real estate and tangible personal property shall be at their 
fair market value, to be ascertained as prescribed by law. 
The general assembly may allow a lower rate of taxation to 
be imposed for a period of years by a city or town upon 
land added to its corporate limits than is imposed on similar 
property within its limits at the time such land is added. 
Nothing in this constitution shall prevent the general assembly, 
after the 1st day of January, 1913, from segregating for the 
purposes of taxation the several kinds and classes of property, 
so as to specify and determine upon what subjects state taxes 
and upon what subjects local taxes may be levied. 
Sec. 170. The general assembly may levy a tax on incomes 
in excess of $600 per annum; may levy a license tax upon 
any business which can not be reached by the ad valorem 
system, and may impose state franchise taxes, and in im 
posing a franchise tax may, in its discretion, make the same 
in lieu of taxes upon other property, in whole or in part, 
of a transportation, industrial, or commercial corporation. 
Whenever a franchise tax shall be imposed upon a corpora 
tion doing business in this state, or whenever all the capital, 
however invested, of a corporation chartered under the laws 
of this state shall be taxed, the shares of stock issued by any 
such corporation shall not be further taxed. No city or town 
shall impose any tax or assessment upon abutting landowners 
for street or other public local improvements except for mak 
ing and improving the walkways upon then existing streets 
and improving and paving existing alleys, and for either the 
construction or for the use of sewers, and the same -when im 
posed shall not be in excess of the peculiar benefits resulting 
therefrom to such abutting landowners. Except in cities and 
towns, no such taxes or assessments for local public improve 
ments shall be imposed on abutting landowners.