McHenry v. Downer

Citations

• 116 Cal. 20
• 47 P. 779
• 1897 Cal. LEXIS 501

Syllabus

<p>Taxation—National Bank Stock— Constitutional Law—Provision for Taxation not Self-executing.—Section I of article XIII of the constitution, providing that “all property in the state not exempt under the laws of the United States shall be taxed in proportion to the value, to be ascertained as provided by law,” and that “the word ‘property’ as used in this article and section is hereby declared to include moneys, credits, bonds, stocks,” etc., is not self-executing, but merely fixes the liability of property to taxation, and the standard upon which it is based, viz., in proportion to its value, but confides the duty of prescribing the machinery by which to ascertain the value to the legislature, with which the power of taxation is lodged; and it cannot be properly objected to the taxation of shares of national bank stock that they were not assessed in pursuance of the provisions of that section of the constitution.</p> <p>Id.—National Banks Agencies of Federal Government—Consent to Taxation—Restrictions upon Power.—National banks are agencies of the federal government, and are not subject to the taxing power of the state without its consent; but the general government has consented in section 5219 of the Revised Statutes of the United States that the states may tax the stock or shares of national banks, subject to the restrictions, that the taxation shall not be at a greater rate than is assessed upon other moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of the state, and the shares of any national banking association owned by nonresidents of any state shall be taxed in the city or town where the bank is located, and not elsewhere.</p> <p>Id.—Rate of Taxation—Construction of Federal Statutes—Discrimination not Allowed.—The clause in the United States statute, that “ the taxation shall not be at a greater rate than is assessed upon other moneyed capital,” etc., means more than that there shall be no more discrimination with respect to the percentage, or any valua