Van Allen v. Assessors

Citations

• 70 U.S. 573
• 18 L. Ed. 229
• 3 Wall. 573
• 1865 U.S. LEXIS 741

Syllabus

<p>1. The act of June 3,1864, “ To provide a national currency,” &e., rightly construed, subjects the shares of the banking associations authorized by it, and in the hands of shareholders, to taxation by the States under certain limitations (set forth in its 41st section), without regard to the fact that a part or the whole of the capital of such association is invested- in national securities declared by the statutes authorizing them to be “ exempt from taxation by or under State authority.”</p> <p>2. The act thus construed is constitutional.</p> <p>3. The act of 9th March, 1865, of the legislature of New York, sometimes called the Enabling Act, and which enacts that shares in any of these national banking associations held by any person or body corporate shall be “included in the valuation of the personal property of such person or body corporate, in the assessment of taxes in tbe town or ward where such banking association is located and not elsewhere,” &c., but which did not provide that the tax imposed should not exceed the rate imposed upon the shares of any of the hanks organized under the authority of the State, is not warranted by the act of Congress, and is void: there having been under the legislation of the State no tax laid on shares in State banks at all; though there was a tax on the capital of such banks.</p>