GENERAL SUMMARY
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for each dependent. Corporations are not granted an exemption.
The corporation franchise tax is based upon capital and
surplus, the rate being $0.50 per $1,000. As a result of a
court interpretation, surplus is construed to be the difference
between capital and total assets, and the tax in practice is
essentially based on assets. Missouri levies a special tax on
foreign insurance companies. The rate is 2%, and the tax
base 1s the amount of premiums received in the state or on
account of business done in the state. Express companies
are taxed by means of a special tax on gross receipts.
Missouri levies a gasoline tax of two cents per gallon, the
lowest rate now in effect in the United States. Motor vehicle
license rates are also moderate. Cities are given authority
to levy gasoline taxes and motor vehicle license taxes for
local purposes.
State AND LocaL Tax REVENUES
The most significant changes in recent years in the sources
of state revenue are the decline in the relative importance of
the general property tax and the increasing volume of
receipts from motor vehicle taxation. Inheritance tax collections
amounted to more than $3 million in 1928, an amount
more than 509%, greater than the collections in either of the
two years immediately preceding. Income tax collections in
1928 amounted to $3.7 million, or 10.8%, of the tax revenues
of the state. In 1926 the receipts from the income tax
amounted to $4.3 million, the largest amount that has been
obtained from this source in any year.
Gasoline tax receipts amounted to $6.6 million in 1928, and
$3.6 million of state revenue was obtained from motor vehicle
licenses. For each year of the period 1923 through 1928,
during which both the gasoline tax and motor vehicle license
tax were in effect, the combined receipts from the two sources
amounted to at least 449, of the total tax revenue of the state.
Local tax receipts in Missouri amounted to $104 million in
1928, as compared with $78.6 million in 1922. More than
909 of local tax revenues is derived from the general property
tax. Per capita local taxes amounted to $22.73 in 1922
