186 Ga. 739 | Ga. | 1938
The holdings in the syllabus require no elaboration other than a reference to the case of City of Atlanta v. Wilkinson, 183 Ga. 238 (187 S. E. 868), upon which the defendant in fi. fa. strongly relies. That case involved an occupation tax imposed by the City of Atlanta, while the present case involves an occupation tax imposed by the State of Georgia. In the former case no question was involved as to whether the restriction of section 22 of the general tax act of March 28, 1935 (Ga. D. 1935, p. 70), that “no person shall be exempt from any tax imposed who has more than one employee to^ assist in conducting such business,” was applicable to a claim of exemption from a Slate tax. Section 22 of this act expressly provides that “any person engaging in any occupation taxed by this act who claims to be exempted from the payment of the taxes herein imposed . . must first satisfy the State Revenue Commission,” etc., manifestly imposes no tax in behalf of municipalities, and therefore clearly has no reference to any claim of exemption from a municipal tax. Consequently the holding in the City of Atlanta case, that “every tax mentioned in this general tax act is a tax payable to the State,” was unquestionably correct. There was, however, as stressed in
Accordingly, the language in City of Atlanta v. Wilkinson, supra, that “the act of March 15, 1935, which exempts disabled veterans, grants this exemption solely from the tax pagable to a town, city, or county of this State,” being unnecessary to the decision in that case and contrary to the express language of the exemption statutes, can not be taken as controlling against the plaintiff in error in this case. The remaining italicized language used in that case, to the effect that no provision of the exemption statutes as amended in 1935 was repealed by the subsequent general tax act of 1935,
The questions in this case do not relate to municipal taxes, but solely to the State occupation tax of $200 levied upon collecting agencies by par. 6 of the general tax act of 1935 itself. Ga. L. 1935, p. 14. And the question of amendment or repeal here involved is whether section 22 of the same general tax act, which in terms makes its restriction as to the number of employees applicable to claims of exemption under “this act or any other act of this ’Slate” has the effect of impliedly amending the previous veteran exemption laws of the Code and the act of 1935, so as to impose such restriction as to employees upon the general right of exemption existing under the prior laws. On that essential question, since section 22 expressly refers to exemption claims made under other acts of the State, and since the general tax act of 1935 is itself a general law enacted after all of the veteran exemption laws, it must necessarily be held as controlling, and as impliedly amending or repealing any such previous laws in so far as they are necessarily inconsistent. Section 22 must therefore be held to have impliedly amended the previous general exemption law by attaching thereto the employee exception or restriction. The fact that no legislative policy has been more tenaciously or more properly adhered to in this State than that of extending to war veterans with proper qualifications every possible exemption not forbidden by the constitution (Tyner v. Winslett, supra; Burch v. Ocilla, 5 Ga. App. 65, 70, 62 S. E. 666), would not authorize this court to disregard an express later enactment creating a new restriction or regulation, or not to follow long recognized, rules of statutory construction.
Judgment reversed.