37 A.2d 498 | Pa. | 1944
Is a county personal property tax return false and incomplete, within the meaning of the Act of 1913, P. L. 507, as amended,
Arthur V. Davis and Roy A. Hunt, appellees, resident taxpayers in Allegheny County, appellant, filed personal property returns for the years 1933 to 1937, inclusive, and the tax thereon was paid. On November 18, 1938, the Board for the Revision of Assessment and Taxes of Allegheny County discovered that the valuation of certain shares of stock was less than the market on the New York Curb Exchange. A reassessment thereof was made and an additional tax imposed against Arthur V. Davis which, with interest, amounted to $57,321.85. On December 12, 1938, a similar reassessment was made with regard to the property of Roy A. Hunt and an additional tax imposed which, with interest, amounted to $16,029.44. Hearings were held by the Board in both cases and the reassessments were sustained. Petitions for appeal to the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny *653 County were filed by Davis and Hunt on May 16, 1939, and August 6, 1940, respectively, wherein petitioners complained that in fixing the value of certain shares of stock the Board used prices at which said shares were sold on the New York Curb Exchange, and refused to consider other evidence of value. On December 10, 1941, appellees amended their petitions, alleging that their returns for personal property as filed with the Board were true and complete and the reassessments invalid, for the reason that they were made after the respective years during which the returns were filed. These appeals are from the final orders of the court below sustaining the striking off the reassessments and the levies based thereon.
Section 1 of the County Personal Property Tax Act of 1913, P. L. 507, as amended,
The court below properly said, with regard to the "false" or "incomplete" return: "In construing the Statute, one must bear in mind the rule of statutory construction that in the absence of specific definition, the ordinary meaning must be given to the words used. False means untrue; contrary to fact; at variance with the true situation. The County strenuously argues for the contention that false may mean incorrect, and for that definition as relied upon offers one of the alternatives in the definition given by the Oxford Dictionary — 'erroneous in the sense of being incorrect.' This would briefly involve the general contention that the taxpayer, regardless of his good faith in placing a valuation upon his stock which differed from that which the Board ultimately accepted as the valuation to be used for assessment purposes did by that expression of a difference of opinion place himself in a position of having filed a 'false', or as the County contends — 'incorrect' return. . . It must be presumed in the absence of the proof to the contrary that the opinion as to valuation expressed by the taxpayer was made in good faith.
" 'Incomplete' means some details left out, not entire, whole or thorough, unfinished, imperfect or defective. It cannot be argued that the return of the taxpayer in this case which was found to have included every stock was incomplete. . . There were no omissions, either as to the kind of stock or the number of shares of any particular issue. The only difference was the difference of opinion as to the valuation to be placed upon these shares."
Orders of the court below are affirmed. Costs to be paid by appellant. *655