66 N.Y.S. 769 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1900
The relator is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York, having its general office in the city of New York and engaged in the business of mining and selling copper at its mines in the Territory of Arizona. On the 2d Monday of January, 1899, an assessment was made against it by the respondents to the amount of $3,000,000. On the first of April in that year the relator applied for a reduction of the assessment, and upon; an examination of its officers a full statement of its assets and liabilities was made, as a result of which the assessment was reduced from $3,000,000 to $1,443,920. It is to review the determination of the assessors in making that reduction and fixing the amount at' the last-named sum that this certiorari was brought.
It appears that the capital of the relator is -$3,000,000 and its surplus at the time of the assessment was something over $671,500. Its actual assets were $3,814,452 and the amount of its.debts was $142,944. These assets consisted of cash in various banks to the amount of $567,305,-of which about $120,000. was deposited in banks in the city of New York and the remainder in various banks' outside of this State. The corporation had bills and accounts receivable to the amount of $1,018,058 for copper sold by it to persons and corporations outside of the State of New York. All of these were payable at the office .of the company in New York, except a certain portion, the amount of which is not stated, which was payable in Chicago, to be deposited in a ban kin that city to the credit of the relator. It also had debts due to it for copper which had been sold and was then in transit to the purchasers, who were corporations and firms not within the State of New York. These debts amounted to $630,000 and were payable at the office of the company. It also owned $551,950 of New York city bonds; $300,000 of the bonds of the United Yerde and Pacific Railway
In reaching the amount of the assessment as finally fixed the respondents deducted ten per cent of the capital of the.corporation, the United Verde and Pacific railway bonds and stock, the Hew York city bonds, the debts due for copper in transit, and the machinery and real estate outside of the State of Hew York.
The relator- insists that this assessment should be further reduced by deducting the bills and accounts receivable for copper and the deposits in banks outside of the State of Hew York.
There is no dispute as to the legal condition of the debts which it is sought to have deducted. The deposits in the various banks are debts due from those banks to the depositor. (Cragie v. Hadley, 99 N. Y. 131, 133.) They are payable upon the checks of the relator drawn in Hew York, or wherever it sees fit to draw them. The bills and accounts receivable are due for copper which has been sold and are payable at the general office of the relator in the city of Hew York, except such as for its own convenience it has caused to be made payable in Chicago, to be deposited there in banks subject to its checks. These are all intangible assets, or at least are represented by securities or notes which have been given to the relator by the various debtors.
The relator being organized under the laws of the State of Hew York is, of course, for the purposes of taxation, a resident of this State. The only question is whether debts due to a resident of this State are assessable to it. A short examination of the changes in the tax laws of this State will make it quite easy to answer that question in the affirmative.
Under the' Revised Statutes it was provided that all lands and personal estate within this State, whether owned by individuals or corporations, should be liable for taxes. (1 R. S. 387, § 1.) In construing this section the Court of Appeals has held that the personal property “ within this State ” which was taxable pursuant to the law, was only that which had its actual situs in the State, and where the property was actually situated outside of the State, so that it might in fact be subject to taxation in another jurisdiction, it was
In that case the relator was the owner of a large number of debts . .secured by mortgages on property in other States and thé securities ' were held for him by his agents in those- States. Having been assessed- for those debts in this State he sued out a writ of certiorari to review that assessment, and the court, following the decision in the Hoyt Case (supra), held that the bonds and securities so held'by his agents without this State were not personal property within- the State and were, therefore, not subject to taxation. Judge E-ael said there was no more authority for taxing personal property not within the State than there - was for taxing lands -not within the State.
The Legislature at the next session after this decision had been .promulgated passed an act -which provided that “- all debts and obligations for the payment of money due or owing tó persons residing within this state; however secured, or wherever such securities shall'
There is no question of the ¡lower of the Legislature to include debts due to a resident of the State whether from residents or nonresidents in his taxable property. The intention of the Legislature with respect to the taxation of personal property can only be ascertained by considering the statute upon the subject. An examination of the changes in this statute made from time to time shows quite clearly that the object of these changes has been to increase the jurisdiction of the' assessors over personal property and to include property which by the decisions of the courts had theretofore been excluded. This is plain from a comparison of the Revised Statutes with the law of 1883, which was undoubtedly' passed to meet and overthrow the rule laid down in People ex rel. Jefferson v. Smith (supra) by the Court of Appeals.
The law of 1883, above referred to, in terms made taxable every debt belonging to a resident of the State no matter'whether the per
Van Brunt, P. J., Ingraham, McLaughlin and Hatch, JJ., concurred.
Order affirmed, with costs.