Pacific National Bank v. Pierce County

Citations

• 20 Wash. 675
• 56 P. 936
• 1899 Wash. LEXIS 223

Syllabus

<p>TAXATION-NATIONAL BANKS-SHARES OP STOCK OP OTHER CORPORATIONS—DOUBLE TAXATION-UNIFORMITY.</p> <p>The fact that double taxation results from the method of taxing personal property, if such was the plain intent, will not invalidate the tax, unless forbidden by the constitution.</p> <p>Where the statutes provide for a method of taxation upon the shares of capital stock of banking institutions, and provide further for the taxation of their real and personal property at the same rate at which other moneyed capital in the hands of citizens is assessed, a bank is not entitled to deduct from the valuation of its capital stock the value of the shares of stock held by it in other corporations located and taxed within the state, although the ownership of such other corporate stock may enter into and contribute to the value of the bank’s capital stock.</p> <p>The constitutional provision (art. 7, § 2) requiring a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation on all property in the state according to its value in money, does not prescribe uniform methods of assessment for all classes of property, but is a requirement that the rate of assessment and the method of valuation shall be uniform as to property sought to be taxed.</p> <p>A national bank is not entitled to deduct, for the purposes of taxation, from the value of its capital stock, the value, of stocks in other corporations acquired by it in the course of business, although such other corporations are located within and taxed by the state, under Rey. St. U. S. § 5219, providing that taxation of such banks shall not be at a greater rate than is assessed upon other moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of the state, since there is no discrimination between the individual shareholder of a national bank, when taxed upon his shares as on other personal property, and the individual citizen, who is by the statute taxed upon all personal property owned by him.</p> <p>(Gordon, C. X, dissents.)</p>