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TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—ARIZONA.
B. POLL TAXES.
Municipalities may levy a poll tax for road or street
purposes of not exceeding $2 on each able-bodied
adult male inhabitant who has resided therein three
months.
D. CORPORATION TAXES.
There are no corporation taxes as such. (See Busi
ness taxes, etc.)
E. BUSINESS TAXES, LICENSES, AND FEES.
Express companies pay the following license taxes
annually:
In municipalities having a population of 500 or less, $2.50; 500
to 1,000, $15; 1,000 to 2,000, $25; 2,000 to 3,000, $35; 3,000 to 4,000,
$45; 4,000 to 5,000, $75; 5,000 to 10,000, $125; 10,000 to 15,000, $175;
15,000 to 20,000, $200; 20,000 to 25,000, $250; 25,000 to 30,000, $300;
30,000 or over, $500.
The following municipal taxes may be levied on
common carriers:
In municipalities having a population not exceeding 250 inhab
itants, $10; more than 250 and not exceeding 500, $15; more than
500 and not exceeding 750, $20; more than 1,000 and not exceeding
5,000, $25 for the first thousand and $25 for each additional thou
sand or major fraction thereof; more than 5,000 and not exceeding
10,000, $25 for first thousand and $30 for each additional thousand
or majority fraction thereof; more than 10,000, $25 for first thou
sand and $35 for each additional thousand or majority fraction
thereof. In no case may any municipality collect such a tax
exceeding $2,000.
A municipal tax on street railway, electric light, gas and steam
heating and waterworks companies shall not exceed 2 per cent of
the gross receipts of such business. Any amount paid as intangible
property tax is allowed as a credit on and against such license tax.
Telegraph and long-distance telephone companies may be taxed
by municipalities for the privilege of doing business.
All municipal corporations are empowered to levy and collect a
license tax on all exhibitions, trades, businesses, vocations, occu
pations, and professions, charging a fee of 50 cents for issuing such
license. (Insurance companies are exempt from this tax.)
Municipal corporations may assess upon fire and marine insurance
companies $4 on each $100 of gross premiums, less premiums re
turned by cancellation; except that such municipal corporation
may charge a flat minimum license at the beginning of the year for
new companies, not to exceed 4 per cent of the gross premiums, less
returns.
In addition to the amount paid the stafe, the several cities and
towns may collect from insurance companies, other than fire and
marine, for the privilege of doing business a privilege or license tax
based on population, according to gross premiums, less returns;
population 5,000 or less, $10 and $1 on each $100 of premiums;
5,000 to 10,000 population, $15 and $1 on each $100 of premiums;
10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, $20 and $1 on each $100 of premiums;
over 50,000 inhabitants, $50 and $1 on each $100 of premiums.
Municipalities may levy a license tax on banks of from $10 to
$200, based on the amount of capital stock.
(See E, under State Revenues.)
G. DISPENSARY PROFITS.
For share of municipalities see Dispensary profits,
under State Revenues.
School Revenues.
The schools are administered in districts or city
school districts, each of which receives from the state
treasury through the county its apportionment of the
lump-sum appropriation or of the proceeds of the rate
levied especially for schools, now fixed by constitution
not to exceed 3 mills; also in the same manner all poll
taxes collected within its bounds; an apportionment
of the sixteenth section fund and other funds derived
from the sale of lands, and 4 per cent on surplus reve
nues of the United States deposited with the state;
all escheats to the state; and certain licenses. (See
Constitutional provisions.)
Various counties have special tax levies for school
purposes.
Part of the amount received by the county as its
proportion of revenue derived from the net profit of
dispensaries is expended for school purposes.
Any surplus accruing under the pure food and drug
act is to be applied to the public school fund.
ARIZONA. 1
Arizona depends for revenue mainly upon the gen
eral property tax. It is supplemented by a poll tax,
an inheritance tax, and licenses.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE IX.
Sec. 1. The power of taxation shall never be surrendered, sus
pended, or contracted away. All taxes shall be uniform upon the
same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority
levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected for public pur
poses only.
Sec. 2. There shall be exempted from taxation all Federal,
state, county, and municipal property. Property of educational,
charitable, and religious associations or institutions not used or held
for profit may be exempted from taxation by law. Public debts,
1 This compilation is based mainly upon the Revised Statutes of
Arizona, 1901, and Acts of Arizona to 1913.
as evidenced by the bonds of Arizona, its counties, municipalities,
or other subdivisions, shall also be exempt from taxation. There
shall further be exempt from taxation the property of widows, resi
dents of this state, not exceeding the amount of $1,000, where the
total assessment of such widow does not exceed $2,000. All prop
erty in the state not exempt under the laws of the United States or
under this constitution, or exempted by law under the provisions
of this section, shall be subject to taxation to be ascertained as
provided by law.
Sec. 3. The legislature shall provide by law for an annual tax
sufficient, with other sources of revenue, to defray the necessary
ordinary expenses of the state for each fiscal year. And for the pur
pose of paying the state debt, if there be any, the legislature shall
provide for levying an annual tax sufficient to pay the annual inter
est and the principal of such debt within 25 years from the final
passage of the law creating the debt.
No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law, and every law
imposing a tax shall state distinctly the object of the tax, to which
object only it shall be applied.