Mr. Chief Justice White
delivered the opinion of the court.
Except as to real estate, which is taxed directly in the name of the owner, all the available resources of banks for the purposes of taxation are reached under the law of California, not by an immediate levy on the banks as the owner, but by annual assessment and tax thereon made by the State Board of Equalization against the stockholders of banks. The state law places the duty upon the banks to pay the tax assessed against their stockholders, with the obligation on the stockholders to. repay, sanctioned by a right conferred upon the banks to sell the stock of any stockholder failing to refund.
The Bank of California, organized under the National Banking Law and established in San Francisco, commenced this suit to recover the amount of a tax, levied against its stockholders in 1915 under the law previously [481]*481stated, which it had paid under protest claiming- that the tax was not only unlawful under the state law but illegal under the law of the United States governing the right of a State to tax national banks and their stockholders. The case is here to review a judgmént denying the right to recover, on the ground that the tax -had been lawfully exacted under both the law of the State and that of the United States.
The' decision below, in so far as it rested upon the state law, is binding and we put that subject out of view. To understand the contentions as to the law of the United States requires a brief statement of the tax levied and the particulars in which it is complained of. The capital of the bank was $8,500,000, evidenced by 85,000 shares of the par value of $100 each. D. O. Mills & Company was a national bank established at Sacramento and the California Bank was a stockholder in that bank to the extent of 2,501 shares. The California Bank was also the owner of 1,001 shares of stock in the Mission Bank, a banking corporation organized under the state law and doing business in San Francisco. The Board of Equalization in 1915 fixed the value of all the assets of the California Bank at the sum of $15,775,252.67. The Board included in the assets making up this amount the stock standing in the name of the California Bank, both in the D. O. Mills National Bank and in the Mission State Bank; the first, the Mills National Bank stock, being computed as worth $625,546.30, and the second, the Mission State Bank stock, as worth $121,916.52.
Upon these valuations, the Board assessed the California Bank as a stockholder in the D. O. Mills National Bank and as a stockholder in the Mission State Bank for the shares-of stock which it held in those banks, valuing each at the sum previously stated. Besides, the stockholders of the California National were assessed for the value of the assets of that bank, including in the amount [482]*482the full value of the shares of stock owned by the bank in the Mills National and Mission State Banks.
The controversy grows out of the asserted illegality of the two-fold tax levied on the assessments of the California Bank as a stockholder in the Mills National Bank and in the Mission State Bank. Its solution depends upon the effect of Rev. Stats., § 5219, the text of which is in the margin.1
Without considering some modifications made by the Act of February 10, 1868, c. 7, 15. Stat; 34, which are negligible for the purposes of the. questions before us, the section is but the reproduction of a provision of § 41 of the Act of June 3, 1864, dealing with the organization of national banks. (13 Stat. 99, 112.) The forms of expression used in the section make it certain that in adopting it the legislative mind had in view the subject of how far the banking associations created were or should be made subject to state taxation, which presumably it was deemed necessary to deal with in view of the controversies growing out of the creation of the Bank of the United States and dealt with by decisions of this court. McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 436; Osborn v. United States Bank, 9. Wheat. 738, 867; Weston v. Charleston, 2 Pet. 449.
[483]*483There is also no doubt from the section that it was intended to comprehensively control the subject with which it dealt and thus to furnish the exclusive rule governing state taxation as to the federal agencies created as provided in the section. All possibility of dispute to the contrary is foreclosed by the decisions of this court. People v. Weaver, 100 U. S. 539; Mercantile Bank v. New York, 121 U. S. 138, 154; Owensboro National Bank v. Owensboro, 173 U. S. 664; Covington v. First National Bank, 198 U. S. 100.
Two provisions in apparent conflict were adopted. First, the absolute exclusion of power in the States to tax the banks, the national agencies created, so as to prevent all interference with their operations, the integrity of their assets, or the administrative governmental control over their affairs. Second, preservation of the taxing power of the several States so as to prevent' any impairment thereof from arising from the existence of the national agencies created, to the end that the financial resources engaged in their development might not be withdrawn from the reach of state taxation, but on the contrary that every resource possessed by the banks as national agencies might in substance and effect remain liable to state taxation.
The first aim was attained by the non-recognition of any power whatever in the States to tax the federal agencies, the banks, except as to real estate specially provided for, and, therefore, the exclusion of all such powers. The second was reached by a recognition of the fact that, considered from the point of view of ultimate and beneficial interest, every available asset possessed or enjoyed by the banks would be owned by their stockholders and would be, therefore, reached by taxation of the stockholders as such. Full and expresé power on that subject was given, accompanied with a limitation preventing its exercise in a discriminatory manner, a power which again [484]*484from its very limitation was exclusive of other methods of taxation and left, therefore, no room for taxation of the federal agency or its instrumentalities or essential accessories, except as recognized by the provision in question.
Let us come to consider whether the taxation in question was sanctioned by the act of Congress as thus understood. We do so, first, from the point of view of the twofold tax which whs based on the ownership by the California Bank of stock in the D. O. Mills National Bank, and, second, as to the taxes which resulted from the ownership by the California Bank of stock in the Mission State Bank.
In Bank of Redemption v. Boston, 125 U. S. 60, it was determined that the stock held by one national bank in another is governed by the power to tax stockholders given by the statute. Hence, the circumstance of the ownership of the stock by the California Bank in the D. O. Mills National Bank in no way deflects the operation of the statute.
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Mr. Chief Justice White
delivered the opinion of the court.
Except as to real estate, which is taxed directly in the name of the owner, all the available resources of banks for the purposes of taxation are reached under the law of California, not by an immediate levy on the banks as the owner, but by annual assessment and tax thereon made by the State Board of Equalization against the stockholders of banks. The state law places the duty upon the banks to pay the tax assessed against their stockholders, with the obligation on the stockholders to. repay, sanctioned by a right conferred upon the banks to sell the stock of any stockholder failing to refund.
The Bank of California, organized under the National Banking Law and established in San Francisco, commenced this suit to recover the amount of a tax, levied against its stockholders in 1915 under the law previously [481]*481stated, which it had paid under protest claiming- that the tax was not only unlawful under the state law but illegal under the law of the United States governing the right of a State to tax national banks and their stockholders. The case is here to review a judgmént denying the right to recover, on the ground that the tax -had been lawfully exacted under both the law of the State and that of the United States.
The' decision below, in so far as it rested upon the state law, is binding and we put that subject out of view. To understand the contentions as to the law of the United States requires a brief statement of the tax levied and the particulars in which it is complained of. The capital of the bank was $8,500,000, evidenced by 85,000 shares of the par value of $100 each. D. O. Mills & Company was a national bank established at Sacramento and the California Bank was a stockholder in that bank to the extent of 2,501 shares. The California Bank was also the owner of 1,001 shares of stock in the Mission Bank, a banking corporation organized under the state law and doing business in San Francisco. The Board of Equalization in 1915 fixed the value of all the assets of the California Bank at the sum of $15,775,252.67. The Board included in the assets making up this amount the stock standing in the name of the California Bank, both in the D. O. Mills National Bank and in the Mission State Bank; the first, the Mills National Bank stock, being computed as worth $625,546.30, and the second, the Mission State Bank stock, as worth $121,916.52.
Upon these valuations, the Board assessed the California Bank as a stockholder in the D. O. Mills National Bank and as a stockholder in the Mission State Bank for the shares-of stock which it held in those banks, valuing each at the sum previously stated. Besides, the stockholders of the California National were assessed for the value of the assets of that bank, including in the amount [482]*482the full value of the shares of stock owned by the bank in the Mills National and Mission State Banks.
The controversy grows out of the asserted illegality of the two-fold tax levied on the assessments of the California Bank as a stockholder in the Mills National Bank and in the Mission State Bank. Its solution depends upon the effect of Rev. Stats., § 5219, the text of which is in the margin.1
Without considering some modifications made by the Act of February 10, 1868, c. 7, 15. Stat; 34, which are negligible for the purposes of the. questions before us, the section is but the reproduction of a provision of § 41 of the Act of June 3, 1864, dealing with the organization of national banks. (13 Stat. 99, 112.) The forms of expression used in the section make it certain that in adopting it the legislative mind had in view the subject of how far the banking associations created were or should be made subject to state taxation, which presumably it was deemed necessary to deal with in view of the controversies growing out of the creation of the Bank of the United States and dealt with by decisions of this court. McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 436; Osborn v. United States Bank, 9. Wheat. 738, 867; Weston v. Charleston, 2 Pet. 449.
[483]*483There is also no doubt from the section that it was intended to comprehensively control the subject with which it dealt and thus to furnish the exclusive rule governing state taxation as to the federal agencies created as provided in the section. All possibility of dispute to the contrary is foreclosed by the decisions of this court. People v. Weaver, 100 U. S. 539; Mercantile Bank v. New York, 121 U. S. 138, 154; Owensboro National Bank v. Owensboro, 173 U. S. 664; Covington v. First National Bank, 198 U. S. 100.
Two provisions in apparent conflict were adopted. First, the absolute exclusion of power in the States to tax the banks, the national agencies created, so as to prevent all interference with their operations, the integrity of their assets, or the administrative governmental control over their affairs. Second, preservation of the taxing power of the several States so as to prevent' any impairment thereof from arising from the existence of the national agencies created, to the end that the financial resources engaged in their development might not be withdrawn from the reach of state taxation, but on the contrary that every resource possessed by the banks as national agencies might in substance and effect remain liable to state taxation.
The first aim was attained by the non-recognition of any power whatever in the States to tax the federal agencies, the banks, except as to real estate specially provided for, and, therefore, the exclusion of all such powers. The second was reached by a recognition of the fact that, considered from the point of view of ultimate and beneficial interest, every available asset possessed or enjoyed by the banks would be owned by their stockholders and would be, therefore, reached by taxation of the stockholders as such. Full and expresé power on that subject was given, accompanied with a limitation preventing its exercise in a discriminatory manner, a power which again [484]*484from its very limitation was exclusive of other methods of taxation and left, therefore, no room for taxation of the federal agency or its instrumentalities or essential accessories, except as recognized by the provision in question.
Let us come to consider whether the taxation in question was sanctioned by the act of Congress as thus understood. We do so, first, from the point of view of the twofold tax which whs based on the ownership by the California Bank of stock in the D. O. Mills National Bank, and, second, as to the taxes which resulted from the ownership by the California Bank of stock in the Mission State Bank.
In Bank of Redemption v. Boston, 125 U. S. 60, it was determined that the stock held by one national bank in another is governed by the power to tax stockholders given by the statute. Hence, the circumstance of the ownership of the stock by the California Bank in the D. O. Mills National Bank in no way deflects the operation of the statute. This being the case, as the taxation of the California Bank as a stockholder in the Mills Bank conformed "to the grant of power to tax stockholders of national banks, it results that the assessment for taxation made upon that basis was within the state authority and was rightly decided so to be.
But the principle upon which this rests inevitably leads to. the further conclusion, that the inclusion of the stock ownership of the California Bank in the Mills Bank as an asset of the California Bank for the purpose of taxing the stockholders of the latter bank was a disregard of the provision as to taxing stockholders fixed by the statute.
Indeed, it is apparent that the use of the power conferred by the statute to tax the California Bank as a stockholder in the Mills National Bank, and in addition to avail of such stock ownership for the purpose of taxing [485]*485the shareholders of the California Bank, was but to accept the statute on the one hand, and to exert on the other a power which could have no existence consistently with the statute. To say that the two taxes, the one levied on the bank as a stockholder in the Mills National Bank, and the other levied on the stockholders of the California Bank, were valid because a taxation of different persons, the California Bank on the one hand and the stockholders of the California Bank on the other, serves only to emphasize the plain disregard of the statute which would result from the enforcement of the taxes in question.
It is undoubted that the statute from the purely legal point of view, with the object of protecting the federal corporate agencies which it created from state burdens and securing the continued existence of such agencies despite the changing incidents of stock ownership, treated the banking corporations and their stockholders as different. But it is also Undoubted that the statute for the purpose of preserving-the state power of taxation, considering the subject from the point of view of ultimate beneficial interest, treated the stock interest, that is, the stockholder, and the bank as one and subject to one taxation by the methods which it provided.
Again, when the purposes of the statute are taken into view, the conclusion cannot be escaped that the transmutation of the stock interest of the California in the Mills Bank, into an asset of the California Bank subject to be taxed for the purpose of reaching its stockholders, is to overthrow the very fundamental ground upon which the taxation of stockholders must rest.
We do not stop to point out the double burden resulting from the taxation of the same value twice which the assessment manifested, as to do so could add no cogency to the violation of the one power to tax by the one prescribed method conferred by the statute and which was the sole measure of the state authority.
[486]*486Coming to consider the tax on the California National Bank as a stockholder in the Mission State Bank, different considerations are controlling, since the provisions of the statute and the ruling in the Bank of Redemption Case, supra, both in letter and spirit apply only to stock ownership by a national bank in another national bank, It therefore follows that as the California National .Bank was subject to state taxation as a federal agency only to the extent authorized by the statute, the taxation of that bank as a stockholder 'in the Mission State Bank was without the scope of tlip statute and beyond the power which it conferred.
But while this is true, it also follows that as the stock in the Mission Bank belonged to the California Bank, and was part of its general assets embraced by the comprehensive power conferred to tax such assets in the absence of some provision of the statute to the contrary, which, as we have seen, was the case with regard to the stock held in the D. O. Mills National Bank, the assessment of the stock in the Mission Bank as an asset of the California Bank against its stockholders was within the scope of the grant given by the statute and was, therefore, valid.
From what we have said, it follows that the court below erred in refusing to order the refunding of the sum paid for the taxes levied on the assessment made against the stockholders of the California Bank for the value of the stock held by that bank in the D. O. Mills National Bank, and which had been assessed against the California Bank as a stockholder in the Mills Bank; and further erred in so far as it refused to decree a refund of the amount paid for the tax levied on the California Bank as the result of the assessment on that bank as a stockholder in the Mission State Bank. In these particulars, therefore, its decree must be, and is reversed. Our order, therefore, is
Reverse and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.