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.