TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
53 
C, D, AND E. THE INHERITANCE TAX, CORPORATION 
TAXES, AND BUSINESS TAXES, LICENSES, AND FEES. 
The inheritance and corporation taxes, as well as 
most of the business taxes, licenses, and fees, are 
reserved for the state. 
The county receives a fee of $1.50 for each liquor 
license, of which the clerk of the peace receives one-third. 
Clerks of the peace, for issuing any license, charge a 
maximum fee of 50 cents, which reverts to the county. 
Municipal Revenues. 
The revenue system of the cities is similar to that for 
the counties and requires no special description. In 
many cities, however, horses and mules are subject to a 
per capita tax. Local laws and customs which author 
ize this and other special taxes contribute to make the 
general property tax almost wholly one on realty. 
Specified cities are authorized to levy on public util 
ities franchise taxes at rates specified in the statutes. 
A city may likewise be authorized to levy certain busi 
ness taxes and licenses. The statutes authorize special 
improvements in designated cities to be paid for partly 
by special assessments levied on the property abutting 
the improvement. 
School Revenues. 
The schools are supported by the state school fund, 
which is made up of money derived from various in- 
DISTRICT 01 
The District of Columbia is a Federal municipal 
corporation over which the Congress of the United 
States has supreme legislative control. The executive 
power is vested in a board of three commissioners, 
appointed by the President of the United States. 
Congress has granted to this board power to adopt 
local police, health, building, and other regulations. 
The District derives its revenue from the general 
property and special corporation taxes, an elaborate 
system of privilege taxes on various occupations, and 
also from appropriations by Congress from money of 
the United States, under the act of June 11, 1878 (20 
Stats., 104): 
To the extent to which. Congress shall approve of said estimates, 
Congress shall appropriate the amount of 50 per cent thereof; 
and the remaining 50 per cent of such approved estimates shall 
be levied and assessed upon the taxable property in the District 
of Columbia. 
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following sources: 
The Code of Law for the District of Columbia, compiled by 
Wm. F. Meyers. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1911. 
United States Statutes at Large. 
Methods of Assessment and Taxation in the District of Columbia, 
compiled by Dr. William Tindall, 1911. 
The Government of the District of Columbia, by Walter Fair- 
leigh Dodd. Washington, John Byrne & Co., 1909. 
vestments hi bank stock, railroad bonds, etc., and an 
appropriation from the state treasury, as well as by 
a county levy and by special school distiict levies. 
The receipts from tavern and marriage licenses ac 
crue to the school fund. 
The school districts may borrow money and levy 
any tax sufficient to pay interest and provide for a 
sulking fund to repay the loan. 
LEGISLATION AFFECTING REVENUE LAWS: 1913. 
Companies operating branch stores, warehouses, or distributing 
places within the state, which have their principal places of busi 
ness outside the state, are required to pay for each county an annual 
license tax of $10, and in addition at the rate of 10 cents for each 
$100 in excess of $5,000 cost value of goods, merchandise, or other 
property received for sale. 
Manufacturers, except producers of alcoholic liquors, steam, gas, 
or electricity, and farm products for home consumption, pay for 
each factory an annual license tax of $5 and ^ of 1 per cent of the 
gross receipts of the preceding year. 
Annual registration fee for motor vehicles changed to $5 and of 
motor cycles to $3. Hunting license: Resident, $1.10; nonresident, 
$10.50; fishermen: nonresident, $3.50; fishing boats, $50; law 
licensing nonresidents to catch clams is repealed; dyers and scourers 
are required to pay an annual license of $10; laundries, $25; mer 
cantile agenices, $10; menhadden fishing vessels using purse nets, 
steam, or other power, 125 net tons and less, $100; over 125 tons, 
$200; sailing vessels, $25; tonnage tax on boats engaged in the oyster 
business, $3.50 per ton. 
Marriage license, $3; certified public accountant: examination 
fee and certificate, $25. 
COLUMBIA. 1 
OFFICERS. 
The officers most directly concerned with taxation 
are: 
(1) Assessor of the District, appointed by the commissioners. 
(2) Board of assistant assessors, composed of five members, 
appointed as a permanent board by the commissioners. 
(3) Assessors of real estate, composed of three members of the 
board of assistant assessors, designated by the assessor, for the 
assessment of real estate. 
(4) Board of personal tax appraisers, composed of the assessor 
and two assistant assessors, designated by the assessor for the 
assessment of personal property. 
(5) Board of equalization and review of real estate assessments, 
and board of personal tax appeals, composed of the five assistant 
assessors and the assessor who acts as chairman. 
(6) Collector of taxes of the District. 
District Revenues, 
a. general property taxes. 
1. Base— 
a. The property included and exempt.—Property, 
real and personal, is subject to taxation except as 
specially exempted. There is no definition of real 
and personal property for purposes of taxation. 
Exemptions in addition to public property are: Churches; insti 
tutions of public charity; public libraries; property used for educa