HOUSE. ,No. 125. REPORT OF THE Tax Commissioner OF THE Commonwealth of Massachusetts, FOR THE YEAR ENDING December 31, 1873. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, Corner Milk and’Federal Streets. 1874. Commouuwaltl) of ittassarljusctts. Treasury Department, Boston, \ February 11, 1874, f To Hon. John E, Sanford, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Sir : I have the honor to transmit through you to the legislature the Annual Report of the Deputy Tax Commis- sioner made to this Department, And am, with great respect, T our obedient servant, CHAS. ADAMS, Jr., Tax Commissioner. tHommomucaltl) of Massachusetts. Tax Commissioner’s Office, Boston, 1 February 11, 187J. / Hon. Charles Adams, Jr., Tax Commissioner. Sir : —The following tables exhibit a summary statement of the results of the Corporation Tax Law for the current year Whole amount of Taxes assessed under Chapter 283, Acts of 1865. General list, ......$1,317,699 12 On Coal, Mining, Quarrying and Oil Com- panies,— May assessments, . $4,039 83 November assessments, . 3,142 26 7,182 09 Aggregate of assessments, . §1,324,881 21 Taxes of 1873 paid to Jan. 1, 1874,— General list, . §1,289,992 30 Under section eight, . 2,009 44 Taxes of 1873 unpaid,— . General list, , $18,146 62 Abatements, . 9,560 20 Under section eight, . 5,172 65 §1,324,881 21 TAX COMMISSIONER’S REPORT. [Feb. The following statement exhibits the outstanding unpaid taxes of Corporations on the general list and the changes during the year : Taxes of 1869,— Outstanding Dec. 31, 1872, . $5B 51 . Abatements, . 58 51 Taxes of 1870,— Outstanding Dec. 31, 1872, . $ll5 80 . Outstanding Dec. 31, 1873, . $ll5 80 Taxes of 1871,— Outstanding Dec. 31, 1872, $19,895 68 . Amount paid, . 5,601 02 . Abatements, . 8,633 17 Outstanding Dec. 31, 1873, . 5,658 49 Taxes of 1872,— Outstanding Dec. 31, 1873, $21,961 56 . Amount paid, . 11,407 25 . Abatements, . 8,966 67 . Outstanding Dec. 31, 1873, . 1,587 64 Taxes of 1873,— Outstanding Dec. 31, 1873, . 22,165 98 Aggregate of unpaid taxes, . $29,527 91 The amount accruing to the Commonwealth under the oper- ation of the law for the current year is as follows : From General List Corporations,— Net amount assessed, .....$1,317,699 12 Amount due to cities and towns, . 986,771 91 $330,927 21 Balance accruing to the Commonwealth : 09 From corporations under section eight, . 7,182 Total amount accruing to the Commonwealth, $338,109 30 1874.] HOUSE—No. 125. 7 Of the amount of tax assessed the present year, the sum of $986,771 91 has been paid and will be payable under the terms of the law to the various cities and towns of the Com- monwealth. A table is appended, marked " C,” giving the amounts to which each city or town is entitled. As usual, a distribution of that portion of the above amount which had been collected on the twenty-seventh day of November, was made and certified in season to be offset against the amounts clue from the cities and towns on account of the State Tax on the first of December. The amount collected at that date was . $1,057,408 84 distributed was . 801,965 39 The amount retained was .... $255,443 45 The comparative valuation of the capital stock and real estate of corporations during the years 1872 and 1873 is as follows : In 1872, $239,547,044 00 1873, 233,437,610 86 . Excess of 1872, . $6,109,433 14 The value of real estate and machinery,— In 1872, $134,789,879 00 1873, 156,200,129 00 Excess of 1873, .... $21,410,250 00 —- aggregate a was ' The oO o excess on which tax laid, In 1872, $104,757,278 03 1873, 90,938,561 07 Excess of 1872, .... $13,818,716 96 The year for which accounts are kept in this office is neces- sarily the year for purposes of taxation, commencing May 8 TAX COMMISSIONER’S REPORT. [Feb. first. The following table has been prepared to connect the accounts of this office with those of the reports of the Treas- urer and Auditor which relate to the financial year com- mencing with January first. The whole amount realized by the Commonwealth during the financial year ending Dec. 31, 1873, has been : From taxes of 1873,— General list distributed, .... $255,443 45 not distributed, . 58,383 44 Mining list, 2,873 44 $316,700 33 Taxes of previous years collected in 1873, — General list, ....$7,113 90 . Mining list, . 2,986 11 lO,lOO 01 Total amount realized, .... $326,800 34 To harmonize this result with that which appears in the Treasurer’s Report there should be added, — The amount now in the treasury to be dis- tributed among the cities and towns, . $181,861 80 Amount belonging to cities and towns on account of the dis- tribution in Nov. not called for Dec. 31, 1873, . $9 63 Amount received from towns in repayment of taxes advanced by the Commonwealth for equal- ization of claims, . 710 54 720 17 ■ Amount carried forward, . ■ $509,382 31 1874.] HOUSE—No. 125. Amount brought forward, . $509,382 31 And there must be deducted the amount paid during the year to cities and towns, on account oftaxes of pre- vious years, . $90,488 34 Taxes under section eight reported in theTreasurer’s books separately, . 5,859 55 96,347 89 Treasury balance, .... $413,034 42 Whole amount paid by Coal, Mining, Quarrying and Oil Companies during the year ending December 31, 1873, is as follows: — Taxes of 1872, $2,052 70 of 1873, 2,873 44 Four per cent, taxes, ..... 933 41 Aggregate of collections in 1873, . $5,859 55 Whole amount of Mining, etc., taxes assessed in 1873,— Taxes paid, ....$2,873 44 unpaid Jan. 1, 1874, . 2,986 11 15,859 55 The whole number of Massachusetts corpo- rations and charters to which my attention has been directed the present year is, . 1,283 Of this number 69 have been dissolved by the courts or by special Act, and 130 new corporations have been chartered or organ- ized, leaving as the number of corporations and charters to be reported, Dec. 31, 1873, 1,214 The authorized net increase of corporate capital in the State during the year, including the capital of three rechar- tered corporations, is as follows : 2 it) TAX COMMISSIONER’S REPORT. [Feb. Authorized by Special Act,— New corporations, $2,130,000 00 Increase of capital, 150,000 00 Under chapter 224, Acts of 1870,— Corporations . under section 11 (59), . 6,131,250 00 Certificates of increase of capital by 36 com- panies under section 34, . 3,623,100 00 $12,034,350 00 Certificates of reduction of capital under sec- tion 35 of same Act, .... 562,150 00 Net increase, $11,472,200 00 By chapter 327, of the Acts of 1873, 463 corporations were dissolved, having ceased to exercise their franchises. This substantially clears our list of corporations of that character, except in a few instances of recent formation. This Act has relieved the department and the officers and shareholders of a class of useless corporations which have filled our list and files, without being of any benefit to the Commonwealth or the manufacturing interests. Further legislation on this point is not recommended, as those now in a state requiring dissolution can apply to the supreme judicial court at a comparatively small expense; and as but a short time has elapsed since the closing of business, it seems very desirable that an inquiry should be made as to claims by creditors and others which cannot be so con- veniently made elsewhere before dissolution is effected. The Board of Appeal was constituted by the appointment of the Hon. Alfred Macy, of the council, to serve with the Treasurer and Auditor. The Board organized November 19, 1873, by the choice of the Hon. Charles Endicott as chairman, when the first ses- sion was held. Since that time sixty-one appeals by corpo- rations have been heard, with the results indicated in the accompanying table. There have been some appeals by towns, in nearly all of which the action of the Board was simply to sanction a trans- 1874.1 HOUSE—No. U25. fer of credits from one town to another where all parties were agreed, and the parties for whose stock credit was claimed were shown to be residents of the appellant towns. Appeals in 1873. Whole number of appeals (all from taxes of 1873), . 61 Abatements allowed, ...... 55 Abatements refused, ...... 5 Appeals withdrawn, ...... 1 A list of cases considered, with the result in each case, is appended, marked "B.” Bank Tax Act. The operation of the law of 1873 has been attended with sat- isfactory pecuniary results, indicating a much more complete collection of the tax due from this class of property, than took place under the law of the preceding year. This result was reached with much less trouble to individual tax-payers and the local officers than under any previous law. So far as I can judge from the almost invariable testimony of those whom I have met, there is a general feeling of acquiescence in the present plan, as being the fairest possible in the complica- tion between the requirements of the constitution and the lim- itations of the national act. If our Commonwealth was the only one thus troubled, it might fairly be a matter of inquiry whether our organic law should not be modified. But an ex- amination of the decisions upon the subject will show that many other States have been troubled in a similar manner.