152 Iowa 84 | Iowa | 1911
The assessor of the city of Dos Moine-s in assessing personal property for the year 1908 valued the stock of the Valley Investment Company, a corporation organized under the laws of this state, at $98,000. From this assessment he deducted the sum of $90,000, the amount at which the real estate of said corporation had been valued for the purposes of taxation for the years 1907 and 1908, and returned an assessment on'said stock against said corporation and its stockholders in the sum of $8,000. Objections to this assessment were made by the company to the board of review of the city of Des Moines, but these were overruled, and the assessment was confirmed. Appeal was thereupon taken by the company to the district ■court, where the action of the board of review was reversed and the assessment declared illegal and void. The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts, and from this it appears that the company is capitalized in the sum of $98,000; that in the year 1908 it filed with the assessor a report showing that it had received as capital the sum of $98,000; that it owned no other property than real estate in
The shares of stock of any corporation organized under the laws of this state . . . shall be assessed to the owners thereof, at the place where its principal business is transacted, the assessment to be on the value of such shares on the first day of January in each year; but in arriving at the total value of the shares of stock of such corporations, the amount of their capital actually invested in real estate owned by it, either in this state or elsewhere, shall be deducted from the real value of such shares, and such real estate shall be assessed as other real estate, and the property of such corporation, except real estate situated within the state, shall not be otherwise assessed. Every such corporation annually, on or before the twenty-fifth day of January, shall furnish to the assessor of the assess
In deducting, under the provisions of this chapter, the value of the real estate from the actual value of the properties, shares or capital stock of any person, association or corporation, the actual value at which said real estate is valued by the assessor or other taxing officer or body, where the same is assessed, shall be the value' thereof. (Code, section 1324.)
On the one side it is contended that the company'was entitled to have deducted from its assessment the amount of capital actually invested in real estate owned by it, while, on the other, it is argued that it is not entitled to deduct more than the value of such real estate, and that under the terms and provisions of section 1324 this value is that at which the rdal estate was valued for taxation by the assessor or other taxing officer or body. If the case stood upon the provisions of section 1323 alone, it would be a troublesome question. That says, in effect, that the amount of capital actually invested in real estate shall be deducted from the value of the shares. ' But it also requires a .showing by the corporation as to the value of each tract of real estate owned by it, and also statements showing the value of the .shares of stock. These latter requirements
This quotation, while accurate enough in the connection in which it appears, does not correctly represent'the doctrine of the case. The real decision wa§ to the effect that the assessment should be on the actual value of the stock diminished by the proportionate value of the real estate owned by the- corporation. That is what we hold here, although under section 1324, we go one step further, and hold that the value is fixed by the assessment. There is no double taxation here. Nor is there any taxation by reason of loss on real estate. If there was a loss of $8,000 on real estate, it did not in any manner affect the value of the stock; this for the reason, we suppose, that the real estate was valued too low, had a potential value not estimated by the assessor, or the corporation franchise in itself added value to the shares of its stock. If there, was any. great or substantial loss in the' real estate, all the corporation’s assets being invested in real estate, this would have effected the value of the stock. The likelihood is that the real estate was not listed and valued at its actual worth. We may well take judicial notice of the fact that, even under the present law, real estate is not valued for assessment at its true worth. The so-called loss was apparent rather than real, and there is no reason why the corporation stock should not be assessed at its true value deducting the value of the real estate in which the capital of the company was invested. If the value of such real estate rises or falls, it affects automatically the value of the shares of stock; assuming, of course, that any great proportion of the capital is invested in real estate. The trial court was in error in deducting the amount of capital invested in real estate
The judgment must therefore be, and it is, reversed.