TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—PENNSYLVANIA. 
195 
Each county of the state is divided into school dis 
tricts. The county commissioners of the several 
counties are required to levy, with other taxes, a tax 
sufficient to raise at least $7 for each child in the county 
betw r een 4 .and 20 years of age. This school tax is ap 
portioned to the districts. The county courts are also 
required to include in the annual levy an amount suffi 
cient to maintain a county high school when one is 
established. 
In case a district does not levy a special tax of at 
least 5 mills on the dollar for maintenance for the 
ensuing year, it will be the duty of the county court 
of the county in which said district is located to levy 
a tax not to exceed 5 mills on the dollar on all the 
taxable property in said district to provide for the 
difference bet'ween the amount received from the 
county apportionment fund and $300. 
LEGISLATION AFFECTING REVENUE LAWS: 1913. 
Board of state tax commissioners was succeeded by the state 
tax commission. 
Taxes remaining unpaid after the 1st day of April are subject to 
a penalty of 1 per cent which becomes cumulative by an additional 
1 per cent for each succeeding month, amounting to 5 per cent 
prior to September 1, after that the same penalty attaches as 
formerly when not paid before the first Monday in October. 
At the expiration of one month after taxes become delinquent 
on any real property in the county, the sheriff is required and 
empowered to issue a certificate of delinquency against such 
property, to any person on demand who pays the principal and 
interest due thereon. 
Pennsylvania places the burden of taxation for 
state purposes almost wholly on corporations and 
insurance companies. Mortgages, bonds, and certain 
other classes of personal property, however, pay a 
state tax, but three-fourths of this tax is returned to 
the counties to relieve the burden of local taxation. 
Corporations are taxed by the state, except on their 
real estate, which is taxed locally. Local taxation 
falls principally upon the real estate of individuals, 
also on horses and cattle, occupations, licenses, and 
certain corporate real estate, as that of manufacturing 
companies, but not that of railroads and other quasi 
public corporations, which are exempt from local tax 
ation upon property essential to the exercise of their 
franchise privileges. 
The bulk of the revenue derived from retail liquor 
licenses goes to the counties, townships, boroughs, and 
cities. 
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following sources: 
Acts of the general assembly of Pennsylvania under which revenue 
is collected, with opinions and decisions of the courts, arranged by 
E. B. Hardenbergh, auditor general, 1904. State Printer, 1904. 
Compendium and Brief History of Taxation in Pennsylvania, 
with Statistics, etc. Arranged by W. P. Snyder, auditor general, 
1906. Harrisburg, Pa., State Printer, 1906. 
Taxation for State Purposes in Pennsylvania, etc., by Frank M. 
Eastman. Philadelphia, Kay <fc Bro., 1908. 
Brightly’s Digest, and the Session Laws to 1913. 
A corporation department and a commissioner of corporations was 
provided for and a ‘"Blue Sky” law governing investment com 
panies was enacted providing for filing fees of §5 and $2. 
An annual levy of ^ of 1 mill on all taxable property in the 
state was provided for, the revenue to go to the support of the state 
agricultural college, this tax to take effect after January 1, 1915. 
The county treasurer was made ex officio county tax collector. 
The sheriff was authorized to collect delinquent taxes. 
The county courts were authorized to levy a tax not to exceed 1 
mill for county fairs, etc., and a 1 mill tax for the purpose of agricul 
tural investigations. 
Many new licenses and fees were provided for among the most 
important being the following: Attorneys’ fees for filing application 
for admission to the bar, resident §20; nonresident §30. Foreign 
corporations, except insurance, casualty, and surety companies pay 
an annual license of §100. Manufacturers and dealers in motor 
vehicles, an annual license of §10; certified public accountants, 
examination and certificate fee, §25; certificate without examina 
tion, §10; annual registration, §1; dentist’s examination fee, §25; and 
annual license, §1.50; commission merchants’ annual license, §5; 
hunter’s license, resident, §1; nonresident, §10; alien, §10, andagun 
license of §25; corporations lending money at a higher annual rate 
than 10 per cent, §50; pharmacist’s examination fee, §10; annual reg 
istration fee, §1. 
The county courts were authorized to establish special road dis 
tricts and to levy taxes to construct county roads therein; they were 
also authorized to levy taxes to establish and maintain demonstra 
tion farms. 
The fees for examination of banks increased, beginning January 1, 
1915, to from §17.50 to §250 for each examination, graduated into 12 
classes, according to the amount of capital and surplus. The fees 
for the examination of trust companies, to be made at least once a 
year, are the same as those of banks, and they pay also §25 for certi 
ficate of authority, and §10 for filing annual reports. 
There is a state inheritance tax on collateral inher 
itances. There is also an established system of busi 
ness taxes and licenses, and special state taxes are 
levied on writs, wills, deeds, and certain emoluments 
of public office. Capital stock of manufacturing cor 
porations is exempt from taxation. 
In counties and municipalities all offices, posts of 
profit, professions, trades, and occupations, as well as 
single freemen following no calling, are assessed along 
with property, but there appears to be a tendency to 
change these taxes into a uniform poll tax, more espe 
cially for school purposes. 
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS. 
ARTICLE IX. 
Sec. 1. All taxes 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; but the legislative 
assembly may, by general laws, exempt from taxation public 
property used for public purposes, actual places of religious worship, 
places of burial not used or held for private or corporate profit, and 
institutions of purely public charity. 
Sec. 2. All laws exempting property from taxation, other than 
the property above enumerated, shall be void. 
Sec. 3. The power to tax corporations and corporate property 
shall not be surrendered or suspended by any contract or grant to 
which the state shall be a party.