PROBLEMS OF TAX BURDEN 295
income tax attributable to Missouri was $34 million, it would
follow that the federal tax on corporation income would be
comparable to the total taxes collected by the State of Missouri
in 1928, which amounted to only slightly more than
$34 million. Although an exact computation is not possible,
the large volume of federal corporation income tax payments
affords a reason for accepting the conclusion that ““the business
interests of Missouri, excluding farms, pay half or more
of the total taxes.”
Another factor that tends to support the conclusion arrived
at is that large business enterprises are taxed for state and
local purposes at higher rates on assessed valuation than is
property on the average. The higher rate is the result of the
urban location of industrial and mercantile concerns and the
fact that urban general property tax rates are much higher
on the average than they are in rural sections. In a recent
year the combined state and local tax rate in St. Louis City
was $2.69 per $100 of assessed valuation and $3.09 in Kansas
City. It is rates such as these that must be regarded as
representative for industry, and not an average rate on
property for the state.
Tue BurDEN oN STATE AND NATIONAL BANKS
National banks are instrumentalities of the Federal Government,
and it follows that they may be taxed for state and
local purposes only to the extent that is permissible under
the federal statutes. According to the federal statutes,
national banks may be taxed in any one of four ways: (1)
by a tax on the shares, (2) by a tax on net income, (3) by a
tax according to or measured by net income, and (4) by
including dividends on bank stock in the taxable income of
the owner or holder. In addition to the taxation of national
banks in any one of the four ways indicated, real estate may
be taxed for state and local purposes. Missouri taxes national
bank stock under the general property tax, and it follows
then that this form of tax operates to the exclusion of
any other form of tax except the general property tax on
real estate.
1 The Taxation System of Missouri, 1929, p. 30.
