GENERAL SUMMARY 
333 
for each dependent. Corporations are not granted an ex- 
emption. 
The corporation franchise tax is based upon capital and 
surplus, the rate being $0.50 per $1,000. As a result of a 
court interpretation, surplus is construed to be the difference 
between capital and total assets, and the tax in practice is 
essentially based on assets. Missouri levies a special tax on 
foreign insurance companies. The rate is 2%, and the tax 
base 1s the amount of premiums received in the state or on 
account of business done in the state. Express companies 
are taxed by means of a special tax on gross receipts. 
Missouri levies a gasoline tax of two cents per gallon, the 
lowest rate now in effect in the United States. Motor vehicle 
license rates are also moderate. Cities are given authority 
to levy gasoline taxes and motor vehicle license taxes for 
local purposes. 
State AND LocaL Tax REVENUES 
The most significant changes in recent years in the sources 
of state revenue are the decline in the relative importance of 
the general property tax and the increasing volume of 
receipts from motor vehicle taxation. Inheritance tax col- 
lections amounted to more than $3 million in 1928, an amount 
more than 509%, greater than the collections in either of the 
two years immediately preceding. Income tax collections in 
1928 amounted to $3.7 million, or 10.8%, of the tax revenues 
of the state. In 1926 the receipts from the income tax 
amounted to $4.3 million, the largest amount that has been 
obtained from this source in any year. 
Gasoline tax receipts amounted to $6.6 million in 1928, and 
$3.6 million of state revenue was obtained from motor vehicle 
licenses. For each year of the period 1923 through 1928, 
during which both the gasoline tax and motor vehicle license 
tax were in effect, the combined receipts from the two sources 
amounted to at least 449, of the total tax revenue of the state. 
Local tax receipts in Missouri amounted to $104 million in 
1928, as compared with $78.6 million in 1922. More than 
909 of local tax revenues is derived from the general prop- 
erty tax. Per capita local taxes amounted to $22.73 in 1922