105 A.D. 319 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1905
The Tax Law as first enacted (Laws of 1896, chap. 9Q8, § 24) provided for the assessment and taxation of shares of bank stock at a rate not greater than that made or assessed upon other moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of the State, and allowed to each stockholder the deductions and exceptions allowed by law in assessing the value of other taxable property owned .by individual citizens of the State. The manner and rate of assessing bank stock
By subdivision 1 of section 2 of the Tax Law, as first enacted (Laws of 1896, chap. 908), it is provided: “ ‘ Tax district ’ as used in this chapter means a political subdivision of the State having a board of assessors authorized to assess property therein for State and county taxes.” Such subdivision of said section has never been changed, but the said amendments to the Tax Law relating to taxing bank stock are special provisions substituting a uniform and certain rate of tax upon bank stock in place of assessments thereon for State, county, town, village, school and other purposes, as previously provided. If the taxes from bank stock can only be paid' to tax districts, as defined in subdivision 1 of said section 2 of the Tax Law, it will deprive villages and school districts of any part of
A general provision or definition in a statute may be limited by other provisions therein, or a special provision in a statute may be wholly excepted from such general provision or definition if the limitation or exception is clearly expressed. Where statutes are expressed in plain language, the intention of the Legislature is conclusively shown by such language. It seems to us that the language of said section 24, as amended, shows clearly that it was the intention of the Legislature to distribute the taxes from bank stock among the municipalities and districts theretofore entitled to assess such stock for the purposes of taxation, and that the definition of a tax district, as contained in said subdivision 1 of said section 2, should not apply in the interpretation of said section 24 as so amended. An interpretation of a statute that tends to secure the rights of all persons affected by the legislation should be favored. By section 13 of said Tax Law it is expressly provided that bank stock shall be assessed to and taxed upon the stockholders in the tax district where the bank or banking association is located and not •elsewhere, whether the said stockholders reside in said tax district or not. There is but one board of assessors authorized to assess property for State and county taxes in any given place, and if the words “ tax district,” as used in such section 24, as amended, are to be restricted to the district in which there is a board of assessors authorized to assess property therein for State and county taxes, there could be no distribution of the tax for but one tax district within such definition could ever include one and the same bank building. The tax district mentioned in said section 24, as amended, must necessarily refer to or include tax districts other than those having a board of assessors authorized to assess property therein for State and county taxes. In this case the taxes received from the bank stock should be distributed among the town, village and school district in the proportions stated in said section 24, as amended. Said section 24, as amended, also provides that the clerks of the several cities, villages and school districts, to which any portion of the tax on shares of bank stock is to be distributed under the act, shall in writing and under oath annually report to the board of supervisors of their respective counties, during the first
We conclude that the order appealed from is right and that it should be affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.
All concurred.
Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.