TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—VIRGINIA. 
245 
OFFICERS. 
The officers most directly concerned with taxation 
are: 
(1) Commissioners of tlie revenue, one to six in each county, 
elected for a term of four years; also one in each city ap 
pointed by the hustings or circuit courts for a term of four 
years expiring in 1913, thereafter to be elected for a term of 
four years. Where there is more than one commissioner in a 
county they are assigned to districts. These officers have 
general supervision of all taxes and licenses, with the ex 
ception of corporation and franchise taxes and those under the 
oyster laws. 
(2) State, county, and city treasurers, who collect and re 
ceive taxes and licenses. 
(3) Assessors, specially appointed by the circuit, corpora 
tion, and hustings’ court of the counties and cities, every fifth 
year, to assess real estate, generally one for each district in 
which there is a commissioner of the revenue. 
(4) County board of supervisors, elected every four years, 
one from each magisterial district; levies taxes for county 
purposes and has general supervision over the revenues of the 
county. 
(5) The state auditor of public accounts. 
(6) State corporation commission, composed of three mem 
bers appointed by the governor for a term of six years; this 
is the board of assessment for railroads and other corpora 
tions. 
State Revenues. 
Prefatory note.—There is a special classification of taxes 
provided for in the revenue laws of Virginia. That classifica 
tion has not been adopted in the following analysis, because 
it seemed to be somewhat desirable to present the tax sys 
tem in the same form as that for the other states. But 
as the classification used in the laws may throw some light 
upon the working of the system, and specially upon the rela 
tion of the different parts one to the other, an abstract of it 
is here presented: 
1. Taxes on lands and lots, ground rents, and rent charge. 
2. Taxable subjects: 
Schedule A.—Male inhabitants, white and colored, poll tax. 
Schedule B.—Personal estate (in goods and chattels), in- _ 
eluding toll bridges, turnpikes, and ferries, except steam fer 
ries, owned and operated by a corporation. 
Schedule C.—Choses in action, moneys, credits, and capital 
stocks. 
Schedule D.—Incomes. 
3. On business and other subjects, to wit, on wills and ad 
ministrations, on deeds, on suits, on seals, on banks and trust 
and security companies, on insurance companies, on railroad 
and canal companies, on water or heat, light and power com 
panies, on sleeping and dining car and similar companies, on 
express companies, on steamboat companies, and on telegraph 
and telephone companies. 
4. Licenses: 
Schedule A.—Merchants, etc. (See more complete list under 
licenses in the general analysis below.) 
A. GENERAL PROPERTY TAXES. 
1. TdSe 
cl The property included and exempt.—All real 
estate and improvements, and all personal estate situ 
ated within the commonwealth, and the moneys and 
credits of persons residing therein wherever situated, 
except as specially exempted, are to be taxed. 
(1) and (2) Beal and personal property are not specially 
defined for purposes of taxation, but taxable classes are enu 
merated in great detail. 
(3) Exemptions in addition to public property are: Bonds 
of the state issued since 1SS2; road and bridge bonds, locally; 
churches and parsonages; cemeteries, public and private, not 
conducted for profit; property of educational institutions, hos 
pitals, nunneries, and orphan and other asylums; property of 
the Virginia Historical Society, the Young Men’s Christian 
Association and similar religious associations, the Association 
for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Confederate 
Memorial Literary Society, and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ 
Association; free libraries; property devoted to charitable and 
benevolent purposes, when not run for profit; grain, tobacco, 
and other agricultural productions in the hands of the pro 
ducer. 
Shares of stock in companies all of whose capital is taxed 
by the state and shares of companies which pay a franchise 
tax in the state, are exempt from taxation. 
b. Assessment.—There is but one assessment for the 
purpose of state and county taxation, and in cities and 
towns the assessment for municipal taxation is to be 
the same as that for the state. 
The general assessment of lands throughout the 
state is made every five years. Assessors are ap 
pointed especially for this purpose in the counties and 
cities of the state and are required forthwith to assess 
the fair market value of each tract and lot of land and 
the improvements thereon and to note whether the 
owner is white or colored. 
The annual land book or list of the taxable real 
estate is made by the commissioners of the revenue in 
the several counties, cities, and districts, who ascertain 
to whom the real estate is chargeable with taxes as of 
February 1 of each year. The value of lands and lots 
as ascertained by the assessor is not to be changed ex 
cept on account of improvements. Each commissioner 
takes with him the last land book and requires every 
person charged to swear to the correctness of the entry 
of his land and to state transfers and omissions, which 
information is verified by the records. Abstracts of 
grants, lists of deeds and lands devised, and judgments 
for partition or recovery of lands, are supplied the 
commissioner by clerks of court and registers of the 
land office. Tracts of land in counties and town lots 
are taxed separately. The commissioner is to assess 
the value or the increase in value of any building or 
inclosure of the value of $100 and upward not already 
assessed and is to reduce the valuation for similar de 
crease in value. Where the owner of the land also 
owns the timber thereon the commissioner may deduct 
for any decrease in the value of the woodland due to 
the cutting of trees to a value of $200 or over. 
Personal property is assessed annually as of Feb 
ruary 1 by the commissioners of the revenue in the sev 
eral counties, districts, and cities. Every person must