Schlosser Bros. v. Huff

128 N.E. 854, 74 Ind. App. 231, 1920 Ind. App. LEXIS 229
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided November 19, 1920·No. No. 10,586·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Nichols, J.

Action by appellant against appellee in Marshall Circuit Court, commenced July 12, 1918, to enjoin appellee as treasurer of the county from the collection of taxes which had been assessed against appellant as corporate excess by the county board of review for the year 1917.

The action of the court in sustaining the demurrer to appellant’s amended complaint presents the only error for our consideration. It appears by the amended complaint that on March 1,1917, and for. several years prior thereto, and thereafter until January 1, 1918, appellant was a domestic corporation with its place of business at the city of Plymouth, Marshall county, Indiana. It owned and operated creamery plants in the State of Indiana at various places, and also a creamery plant in the city of South Chicago, Cook county, Illinois, owning [233]*233such property as was necessary to conduct a large and extensive creamery business, including not only personal property, but farm lands as well. During March, 1917, appellant caused to be duly prepared, in the respective taxing districts where its property was located, schedules of its property, which were delivered to the proper taxing officers, and by them delivered to the auditors of the respective counties, in which said property was located. By these schedules appellant returned for taxation all of its personal property in Indiana and in Illinois, and all of its real estate was on March 1, 1917, duly assessed for taxation. On May 12, 1917, appellant made its domestic corporation tax statement by which it appears that its common stock on March 1, 1917, was $293,200, and its preferred stock $78,500, making a total of common and preferred of $371,700. Its tangible property at that time, real and personal, within the State of Indiana, was $415,183.06, and its tangible property, real and personal, without the State of Indiana, was $127,821.31; the value of the tangible property exceeding the value of the capital stock in the sum of $171,304.37. This statement through the township assessor was delivered to the auditor of Marshall county. In June, 1917, the county board of review assessed appellant as a domestic corporation with a corporate excess of $149,255. Such corporation on March 1, 1917, had invested in the State of Indiana of its corporate stock and assets the total sum of $395,817.07, all of which had been assessed for taxation in the respective jurisdictions in which it was located on March 1, 1917. In addition to the foregoing property, appellant had invested in real estate and personal property in Cook county, Illinois, $127,821.31, all of which had been duly and legally assessed for taxation by the taxing officers of Cook county, Illinois, on March 1, 1917. In June, 1917, at the time when the county board of review of [234]*234Marshall county assessed appellant with the corporate excess of $149,255, in addition to the assessment on real and personal property, appellant had invested its capital stock and assets in real and personal property in Indiana and in Illinois, in the total sum of $477,936.96, all of which had been assessed for taxation by the taxing officers of the respective jurisdictions in which said property was situated. On said March 1, 1917, appellant had no other property. On March 1, 1917, appellant had invested in said property all of its capital stock and surplus and assets of said corporation. The corporate stock of the corporation had no value except that given it and based upon its real and personal property so owned by it in Illinois and Indiana as described at its market price. With these facts before it, the board of review made its finding and minutes that the actual cash value of the capital stock- of appellant was $278,-775, and, for the purpose of finding the excess of capital stock, deducted from said ■ cash value only the taxable value of the property within the State of Indiana, refused to deduct from said cash value the amount of assets of appellant invested in tangible property in Indiana, and deducted only the assessed valuation thereof, and further refused to deduct from the actual cash value of the capital stock any amount on account of assets invested in real and personal tangible property in Cook county, Illinois, which was,' as aforesaid, of the value of $127,821.31. An appeal was duly taken from the action of the board to the state board of tax commissioners, which appeal was not sustained, and, in addition to the personal assessment shown on the schedule of taxation in the respective taxing districts, $148,255 was placed upon the tax duplicate in Marshall county, upon which excess at the rate fixed there was an excess tax of $5,686.62. Appellant had paid all its taxes in Indiana and Illinois, but had not paid the taxes assessed and lev[235]*235ied on account of the order of the county board, based upon the corporate excess tax in the stun of $5,686.62, and the same has been returned delinquent and stands upon the tax duplicate as a lien against appellant’s property in the sum of $6,225.28, which constitutes a lien upon appellant’s real estate, and for the payment of which appellant is not liable. On March 1, 1917, and thereafter until June 27, 1917,.all of appellant’s capital stock, and all of its surplus, and all of its assets of every kind and description, was so invested in tangible property, all of which had been returned for taxation, and the capital stock and surplus and assets of appellant were not liable for taxation for the year 1917, except as it was assessed and taxed on its schedules of personal property and real estate. It is averred that the board of review acted without authority of law in ordering an assessment of appellant with the corporate excess for the year 1917. Said board of review, when it made assessment of the assessed value of the corporate stock of the appellant, fixed the valuation of the same at $278,-775 being seventy-five per cent, of the total par value, which was the same per cent, as fixed by said board and other taxing boards in Indiana, and was the uniform per cent, of the par value used in the assessment of banks and other corporations. In making its assessments the board of review wholly disregarded the value of the property owned by appellant in the State of Illinois, although the assets of appellant were invested therein in the amount of $127,821.31, which amount of property had been duly assessed in that state. That by so disregarding the value of the property assessed in Illinois, the board of review thereby made a second assessment for taxes against appellant’s tangible property located in the State of Illinois over which it had no jurisdiction to assess inanywayormanner whatever. By deducting from the valuation of appellant’s preferred [236]*236and common capital stock, which was fixed at. $278,-775, only the assessed valuation of the tangible real and personal property in the State of Indiana, assessed at $129,520, the state board of review and state board of tax commissioners fixed the valuation of the excess corporate stock at the remainder left, which was $149,255, thereby increasing the value for assessment purposes of appellant’s tangible property in Indiana and Illinois by making a second assessment on the Indiana tangible property by the indirect method of assessing such increased valuation as excess capital stock, and thereby the board of review violated the rules of law securing to all taxpayers a just valuation upon principles of uniformity, equality and justice. There is a prayer for injunction against appellee.

1. It is provided in §10234 Búrns 1914, Acts 1891 p. 199, that in.

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Schlosser Bros. v. Huff, 128 N.E. 854, 74 Ind. App. 231, 1920 Ind. App. LEXIS 229 (Ind. Ct. App. 1920).

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