nature of a royalty for the privilege of using or operating the same, shall be assessed where such machines are situated or employed to the owner or any person, firm or corporation in possession of the same on the first day of May. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1887, Chap. 226.] An Act relating to the Overlay of Taxes. SECTION 1. Section forty-nine of chapter eleven of the. Public Statutes is amended so that it shall read as follows: Section 49. They may, for the purpose of avoiding fractional divisions of the amount to be assessed in the apportionment thereof, add to that amount a sum not exceeding five per cent. thereof. And this overlay is authorized notwithstanding the limit of taxation now provided by law may, by such overlay, be exceeded. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1887, Chap. 228.] An Act exempting Corporations whose Franchise is subject to Taxation from Taxation of their Shares. SECTION 1. Chapter eleven of the Public Statutes is hereby amended in the fourth section by adding thereto the following words: - and this proviso shall apply to corporations mentioned in the forty-sixth section of said chapter thirteen, so that the last clause. of said section four shall be as follows:-provided, that no taxes shall be assessed in any city or town for state, county or town purposes upon the shares in the capital stock of any corporation organized or chartered in the Commonwealth paying a tax on its corporate franchises under the provisions of chapter thirteen for any year in which it pays such tax, but such shares shall be taxable to the owners thereof for school district and parish purposes, and this proviso shall apply to corporations mentioned in the fortysixth section of said chapter thirteen. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1887, Chap. 373.] An Act extending the Provisions of the Public Statutes relating to the Taxable Valuation of Vessels engaged in the Foreign Carrying Trade. SECTION 1. The provisions of section ten of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes are hereby renewed and extended for the term of two years. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [And for two years more, Stat. 1889, ch. 286, and for five years more, 1893, ch. 149.] [1888, Chap. 158.] An Act in Relation to the Exemption of the Property of Certain Literary and other Associations from Taxation. SECTION 1. The third paragraph of section five of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes as amended by chapter two hundred and thirty-one of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six is hereby further amended so as to read as follows:- Third, The personal property of literary, benevolent, charitable and scientific institutions and temperance societies incorporated within this Commonwealth, and the real estate belonging to such institutions and societies occupied by them or their officers for the purposes for which they were incorporated; but such real estate when purchased by such a corporation with a view to removal thereto, shall not, prior to such removal, be exempt for a longer period than two years; but none of the real or personal estate of such corporations organized under general laws shall be exempt when any portion of the income or profits of the business of such corporations is divided among their members or stockholders, or used or appropriated for other than literary, educational, benevolent, charitable, scientific or religious purposes. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1888, Chap. 307.] An Act relative to the Right of the Public to examine the Lists of Valuation and Assessment of Cities and Towns. SECTION 1. Section fifty of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes is hereby amended so as to read as follows: Section 50. They shall make, upon the blank books furnished in accordance with section fifty-two, a list of the valuation and the assessment thereon, and before the taxes assessed are committed for collection, shall deposit the same, or an attested copy thereof, in their office, or if there is no office, with their chairman, for public inspection. The residents and non-resident property holders of each city or town shall, at all reasonable times have free access to its respective list of valuation and assessment and if the assessors refuse or neglect to submit the said list to the inspection of any of said residents or nonresident property holders upon request, each assessor so refusing or neglecting shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars in each case. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1888, Chap. 315.] An Act to enable Tenants under Obligation to pay Taxes assessed on Real Estate to apply for an Abatement thereof. SECTION 1. Section sixty-nine of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes is hereby amended by adding thereto the following, to wit:- and tenants paying rent for real estate, and under obligation to pay the whole or a major part of the taxes assessed thereon, may so apply in behalf of the owner and with like effect as if the owner had applied, and no neglect of the owner to file a list of his estate shall prevent the making an abatement, if it appears that such abatement should be made. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1888, Chap. 323.] An Act to amend Chapter Two Hundred and Seventeen of the Acts of the Year Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-two relating to Returns of Property held for Benevolent, Charitable or Scientific Purposes. SECTION 1. Section one of chapter two hundred and seventeen of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-two is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following:-provided, also, that instead of making such list and statement as of the first day of May, as above provided, any such corporation may at its option make such list and statement as of the last day of its financial year next preceding said first day of May. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1888, Chap. 362.] An Act concerning the Assessment of Taxes in Certain Cases. SECTION 1. Section seventy-eight of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes as amended by chapter eighty-five of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six is hereby further amended, to read as follows:- Section 78. When the assessors of any city or town after their rate of taxation has been declared and whether before or after their warrant has been committed to the collector, discover that the real or personal estate of any person, to an amount not less than one hundred dollars and liable to taxation, has been omitted from the last annual assessment of taxes in such city or town, said assessors shall between the fifteenth and twentieth days of December next ensuing, proceed to assess such person for such estate in like manner as he should have been assessed in such last annual assessment. The taxes so assessed shall be entered in the tax list of the collector of the city or town, and he shall collect and pay over the same in the manner specified in his warrant. No tax shall be invalidated for the reason that, in consequence of the provisions of this section, the whole amount of the taxes assessed in a city or town exceed the amount authorized by law to be raised. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1888, Chap. 363.] An Act to amend Section Four of Chapter Eleven of the Public Statutes relating to the Taxation of Personal Estates. Section four of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes is hereby amended by inserting after the words "public stocks and securities," in line eight thereof, the words:bonds of all railroads including street railways, so that the first eight lines of said section shall read as follows: Section 4. Personal estate shall, for the purposes of taxation, include goods, chattels, money, and effects, wherever they are, ships and vessels at home or abroad, except as provided in section eight, money at interest, and other debts due the persons to be taxed more than they are indebted or pay interest for, but not including in such debts due any loan on mortgage of real estate, taxable as real estate, except the excess of such loan above the assessed value of the mortgaged real estate, public stocks and securities, bonds of all railroads including street railways, stocks in turnpikes, [For ch. 390,"An Act to amend and codify the Statutes relating to the Collection of Taxes," see pp. 41-82.] [1889, Chap. 84.] An Act relating to the Ownership of Real Estate for the Purpose of Taxation. SECTION 1. Section thirteen of chapter eleven of the Public Statutes is hereby amended by inserting after the word "taxes" in the first line thereof the words: on real estate, and by striking out in the second line of said section the words "of record as owners of real estate and inserting in place thereof the words: - in the records of the county where the real estate lies as the owners thereof on the first day of May, even if deceased, so as to read as follows:- Section 13. For the purpose of assessing and collecting taxes on real estate the persons appearing in the records of the county where the real estate lies as the owners thereof on the first day of May, even if deceased, shall be held to be the true owners thereof. Taxes on real estate shall be assessed, in the city or town where the estate lies, to the person who is either the owner or in possession thereof on the first day of May. Mortgagors of real estate shall, for the purposes of taxation, except as provided in the three following sections, be deemed owners until the mortgagee takes possession, after which the mortgagee shall, except as provided in said sections, be deemed the owner. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. |