202
TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—RHODE ISLAND.
the amount of state and county taxes, on all objects,
persons, and property taxable for state or county pur
poses. The tax on trades, professions, and occupa
tions, or on single freemen, is not to be less than $1. A
poll tax may be levied in lieu of the occupation tax. for
school purposes.
LEGISLATION AFFECTING REVENUE LAWS: 1913.
An important act was approved May 15, 1913, having for its
purpose the classification, in cities of the second class, of real
estate, for the purpose of taxation, into two classes, to wit:
the buildings on the land and the land exclusive of buildings,
and by providing for the assessment of a less tax upon the
buildings than upon the land exclusive of the buildings. It
is as follows: The city council must, in determining the rate,
assess a tax on the building as follows: In 1914 and 1915,
“A tax upon the building equal to tk of the highest rate of
tax required for said years.” This rate is to be decreased
until, in 1925 and in each succeeding year the rate will be
equal to t<t of the highest rate of tax required to be assessed.
In other words, after that date the land will bear two-thirds
of the taxation and the buildings one-third.
It was provided also that certain classes of personal prop
erty were made taxable for county purposes and in cities coex
tensive with counties for city and county purposes at the
rate of 4 mills on the dollar, as follows: “All mortgages; all
moneys owing by solvent debtors, whether by promissory note,
or penal or single bill, bond or judgment; all articles of agree
ment and accounts bearing interest; all public loans whatso
ever, except those issued by this commonwealth or the United
States, and those made taxable for state purposes; all loans
issued by any corporation, association, company, or limited
partnership, created or formed under the laws of this common
wealth or of the United States, or of any other state or
government, including car-trust securities and loans secured
by bonds or any other form of certificate or evidence of in
debtedness, whether the interest be included in the principal
of the obligation or payable by the terms thereof, except such
loans as are made taxable for state purposes; all shares of
stock in any bank, corporation, association, company, or lim
ited partnership, created or formed under the laws of this com
monwealth or of the United States, or of any other state
or government, except shares of stock in any bank, corpora
tion, or limited partnership that may be liable to a tax on its
shares or its capital stock for state purposes under the laws
of this commonwealth, or relieved from the payment of tax
on its shares or capital stock for state purposes by the laws
of the commonwealth; all moneys loaned or invested in other
states, territories, the District of Columbia, or foreign coun
tries ; all other moneyed capital in the hands of individual
RHODE
Rhode Island depends, for its state revenue, on the
general property tax, the tax on corporate excess,
on participation accounts and bank shares, on the
gross earnings tax on public service corporations, and
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following
sources:
The General Laws, Revision of 1909.
The Laws of Rhode Island from 1909 to January session,
1913.
Report of Roard of Tax Commissioners, 1912.
citizens of the state; all stages, omnibuses, hacks, cabs, and
other vehicles used in transporting passengers for hire, except
steam and street passenger railway cars, owned, used, or pos
sessed within this commonwealth by any person or persons,
or by any corporate body or bodies; all annuities yielding
annually over two hundred dollars.”
“All scrip, bonds, or certificates of indebtedness issued by
any and every private corporation, incorporated or created
under the laws of this commonwealth or the laws of any other
state or of the United States, and doing business in this com
monwealth, and all scrip, bonds, or certificates of indebtedness
issued by any county, city, borough, township, school district,
or incorporated district of this commonwealth ” were made
taxable at the same rate for state purposes.
The provisions of this act do not apply to bank notes or
notes discounted or negotiated by any bank or banking insti
tution, savings institutions, or trust company; to building and
loan associations or to savings institutions having no capital
stock; to fire companies, firemen’s relief associations, life or
fire insurance corporations having no capital stock, secret
and beneficial societies, labor unions and labor union relief
associations, and all beneficial organizations paying sick or
death benefits, or either or both, from funds received from
voluntary contributions, or assessments upon members of such
associations, societies, or unions.
Companies which are liable to the tax on capital stock for
state purposes are not required to pay this tax on mortgages,
bonds, and other securities owned by them in their own right,
but are required to pay it on such securities held by them as
trustees, executors, administrators, guardians, or in any other
manner.
Property taxable under this act for county or for city and
county purposes is not taxable for any other local or state
purpose, and property taxable for state purposes is not taxable
for county, school, or other local purposes.
The duties of the board of revenue commissioners in equal
izing the assessment of taxes for the use of the state among
the several cities and counties were abolished by this act.
Another important law passed by the legislature of 1913
was that which placed a tax of 2i per cent on the market
value of each ton of anthracite coal produced in the state.
This tax is distributed one-half to the state and one-half to
the county in which the coal is produced, the latter being
divided among the cities, boroughs, and townships of the
county, based on population. (The question of the constitu
tionality of this law is now pending in the courts.)
Several changes were made in license fees, but none of great
importance. A new license fee was imposed on persons or
firms advertising or representing goods to be from stock of
bankrupt firms of not less than $100 or more than $200 per
month in cities, incorporated towns, and boroughs, and of $25
per month in townships.
ISLAND. 1
on the tax on oyster ground leases. The revenues
from these taxes, except that on general property, are
for state use only. The state also participates in cer
tain business taxes, licenses, fines, fees, etc. The
state receives one-fourth of the revenues from liquor
licenses.
There is a local poll tax of $1 in lieu of other taxes
upon persons whose taxes do not amount to $1.
There is no inheritance tax.