fixed general rules. Gay v. Thomas, 46 Pae. 578, 581, 5 Okl. 1. Washburn, 20 Cal. 318). A tax is understood to be a charge, a pecuniary burden, for the support of the government. Michigan Cent. R. Co. v. Slack (U. S.) 17 Fed. Cas. 263, 265 (citing United States v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 84 U. S. [17 Wall.] 326, 21 L. Ed. 597). S. C. (3 Rich.) 347, 349, 16 Am. Rep. 732; Hanson v. Vernon, 27 Iowa, 28, 47, 1 Am. Rep. 215; Reelfoot Lake Levee Dist. v. Taxes are the enforced proportional conDawson, 36 S. W. 1041, 1044, 1045, 97 Tenn. 151, 34 L. R. A. 725; Leedy v. Town of Bour- tributions from persons and property levied bon, 40 N. E. 640, 641, 12 Ind. App. 486; by the states for the support of government McRae v. CoMcClelland v. State, 37 N. E. 1089, 1092, 138 and of public improvements. Ind. 321; Mitchell v. Williams, 27 Ind. 62, chise County (Ariz.) 44 Pac. 299, 300, 33 L 63; City of Baltimore v. Green Mount Cem-R. A. 851, 56 Am. St. Rep. 579 (citing Perry etery, 7 Md. 517, 535; Bonaparte v. State, 63 Md. 465, 470; Deal v. Mississippi Co., 18 S. W. 24, 26, 107 Mo. 464, 14 L. R. A. 622; Hale v. City of Kenosha, 29 Wis. 599, 605; Lake Shore & M. S. Ry. Co. v. City of Grand Rapids, 60 N. W. 767, 769, 102 Mich. 374, 29 L. R. A. 195; Hallenbeck v. Hahn, 2 Neb. 377, 403; Frieszleben v. Shallcross (Del.) 19 Atl. 576, 592, 9 Houst. 1, 8 L. R. A. 337; People v. City of Brooklyn (N. Y.) 9 Barb. 535, 551. Or to defray the necessary expenses in administering the government. Sheehan v. Good Samaritan Hospital, 50 Me. 155, 158, 11 Am. Rep. 412. Or to accomplish some governmental end. Crawford v. Bradford, 2 South. 782, 784, 23 Fla. 404; United States v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 84 U. S. (17 Wall.) 322, 326, 21 L. Ed. 597; City of Santa Barbara v. Stearns, 51 Cal. 499, 501; Ex parte Cooper, 3 Tex. App. 489, 493, 30 Am. Rep. 152. "Taxes" are defined as being the enforced proportional contribution of persons and property, levied by authority of the state for the support of the government and for all public needs. Yeatman v. Foster County, 51 N. W. 721, 723, 2 N. D. 421, 33 Am. St. Rep. 797; State v. Montague, 15 South. 589, 590, 34 Fla. 32; Taylor v. Boyd, 63 Tex. 533, 541; Languille v. State, 4 Tex. App. 312, 321 (quoting Blackw. Tax Titles, 1); People v. Lawler, 77 N. Y. Supp. 840, 843, 74 App. Div. 553; In re Hun, 39 N. E. 376, 377, 144 N. Y. 472; Hewitt v. Traders' Bank, 51 Pac. 468, 469, 18 Wash. 326; Jack v. Weienetl, 3 N. E. 445, 446, 115 Ill. 105, 56 Am. Rep. 129; Foster v. Stevens, 22 Atl. 78, 79, 63 Vt. 175, 13 L. R. A. 166; Moog v. Randolph, 77 Ala. 597, 605; Palmer v. Way, 6 Colo. 106, 115; Morgan's L. & T. R. & S. S. Co. v. State Board of Health, 6 Sup. Ct. 1114, 1117, 118 U. S. 455, 30 L. Ed. 237. In return for such contribution the state affords protection to life, liberty, and property, and this is essential to civilization and the very existence of the state. Union Refrigerator Transit Co. v. Lynch, 55 Pac. 639, 640, 18 Utah, 378, 48 L. R. A. 790. The citizen pays from his property the portion demanded, in order that by means thereof he may be secure in the enjoyment of the benefits of organized society. The power is unlimited in its reach as to subjects. In its very nature it acknowledges no limit. It is not an arbitrary power, nor can it be exercised capriciously. It is hedged about and restricted by constitutional limitations and A "tax" is defined to be a rate or sum of money assessed on the person or property of a citizen by government for the use of Hamilton v. Dillin (U. the uation or state. S.) 11 Fed. Cas. 332, 335. A "tax" is a charge or burden imposed by authority, as a levy of any kind made on property for the support of the government. King v. Fountain County, 49 Ind. 13, 20. A "tax" is an impost levied by authority of government upon its citizens or subjects for the purpose of the state. McClelland v. State, 138 Ind. 321, 332, 333, 37 N. E. 1089, 1092 (citing City of Camden v. Allen, 26 N. J. Law [2 Dutch.] 398). A "tax" is a contribution which the law requires individuals to make for the support of the government. Dunn v. Winston, 31 Miss. 135, 137. A "tax" is generally understood to mean the imposition of a duty or impost for the support of the government. Brewer Brick Co. v. Inhabitants of Brewer, 62 Me. 62, 70, 16 Am. Rep. 395. Taxes are the regular, uniform, and equal contribution which all citizens are required to make for the support of the government. City of New London v. Miller, 22 Atl. 499, 501, 60 Conn. 112. A "tax" is a rate or sum of money assess ed on the person, property, etc., of a citizen. State v. Hipp, 38 Ohio St. 199, 226; Pullman Southern Car Co. v. Nolan (U. S.) 22 Fed. 276, 279. By the government for the use of a nation or state. City of Baltimore v. Green Mount Cemetery, 7 Md. 517, 535 (citing Webst. Dict.); Citizens' Savings & Loan Ass'n v. City of Topeka, 87 U. S. (20 Wall.) 653, 664, 22 L. Ed. 455. A tax is an exaction made for the purpose of carrying on the government, directly or through the medium of municipal corporations, which are but parts of the machinery employed in the operation of the government. Trustees of Illinois & M. Canal v. City of Chicago, 12 Ill. (2 Peck) 403, 406; City of Chi TAX-TAXATION 6869 TAX-TAXATION cago v. Baptist Theological Union, 2 N. E. for the purpose of ascertaining such amount. 254, 256, 115 Ill. 245. The term “taxes," it is said, includes all contributions imposed by the government up on individuals for the service of the state. The individual, and not his property, pays the tax. Green v. Craft, 28 Miss. (6 Cushm.) 70, 75 (cited in State v. Camp Sing, 18 Mont. 128, 150, 44 Pac. 516, 521, 32 L. R. A. 635, 56 Am. St. Rep. 551). The word "taxes" in its most extended sense includes all contributions imposed by the government on individuals for the services of the government; but the word "taxes" as used in the federal Constitution, authorizing Congress to impose taxes, imposts, duties, and excises, is used in its more confined or restricted sense, and means taxes which are neither duties, imposts, or excises. ion Bank v. Hill, 43 Tenn. (3 Cold.) 325, 328. Un "A tax is a portion of the property of the citizen required by the government for its support in the discharge of its various functions and duties, and may be imposed when either person or property is found within its jurisdiction." Graham v. St. Joseph Tp., 35 N. W. 808, 810, 67 Mich. 652. A tax is a forced contribution, and can only be sustained on the theory of good government. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Territory (N. M.) 72 Pac. 14, 15; Rio Grande, M. & P. R. Co. v. Same, Id.; Silver City, D. & P. R. Co. v. Same, Id. The word "taxes," in its ordinary sense, embraces all those regulations and impositions or burdens laid by the government upon property and persons for the purpose of raising revenue for its general needs. District of Columbia v. Sisters of Visitation (U. S.) 15 App. Cas. 300, 306. An assessment must thus be made in order to create a liability on the part of an individual to pay the tax, and if no such assessment is made no liability is created. Green v. Craft, 28 Miss. (6 Cushm.) 70, 75. Taxes are public burdens, of which every individual may be compelled to bear his part, and that in proportion to the extent of protection he receives or the amount of property held by him, as the will of the Legislature may direct. The power of taxation is said to be an incident of sovereignty, and coextensive with that of which it is incident. In the several states of the Union it extends to all subjects over which their sovereign power extends, and the sovereignty of the state extends to everything which exists by its own authority or is introduced by its permission. Hanna v. Allen County, 8 Blackf. 352, 355. "Taxes," says Judge Cooley, "differ from subsidies, being orderly and regular, and they differ from the forced contributions, loans, and benevolences of arbitrary and tyrannical periods, in that they are levied by authority of law and by some rule of proportion." Boston, C. & M. R. Co. v. State, 60 N. H. 87, 88. The clause of the Constitutions of 1860 and 1867 exempting homesteads from all debts, except taxes, etc., are used in the broadest sense, without limitation or restriction, and any execution for taxes in the hands of anybody, due by anybody, so that it be for taxes, money due the state from that source and not paid over, may be collected out of the person so owing that money, though it override that homestead and exemptions of his family taken and set apart out of his property. Cahn v. Wright, 66 Ga. 119, 120. "Taxes," as used in the federal Consti The characteristics of a tax are a public | burden imposed by law, a description of the property and persons by whom it is to be tution, must be confined to the idea which borne, the contingency on the happening of they commonly and ordinarily present to the which it is to be imposed, and the appor- mind as exactions to fill the public coffers tionment of it in pursuance of law. Woodfor the payments of the debts and promotion bridge v. City of Detroit, 8 Mich. 274, 282. of the general welfare of a country. Worsley The term "taxes" includes all contribu- v. City of New Orleans (La.) 9 Rob. 324, 333, tions imposed by the government on indi- 41 Am. Dec. 333. viduals for the support of the state. The individual, and not his property, pays the tax. The property is resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the tax with which the owner must be charged, and for the purpose of enforcing payment when the owner shall be legally in default in paying at the time stipulated by law. No person is a taxpayer until he has been so declared by the proper authorities. An assessment must be as certain in designating the person chargeable with the tax at the commencement of the fiscal year as it must be in designating the amount of the charge on the property to which reference is made A "tax" has been defined to be a word of cies of imposition on persons or property, general import, including almost every spefor supplying the public treasury, as tolls, tribute, subsidy, excise, impost, or customs. In a more limited sense it is a sum laid for the same purpose upon polls, lands, houses, property, provisions, and occupations. Mays v. City of Cincinnati, 1 Ohio St. 268, 273. A tax is imposed for a general or public purpose. It is levied for the purpose of carrying on the government. It is a charge on lands and other property which lessens its value, and in the proportion in which the owner is required to pay is his pecuniary ability diminished. This is the sense in which the term "taxation" is used and understood. De Clercq v. Barber Asphalt Pav. Co., 47 N. E. 367, 167 Ill. 215; Trustees of Illinois & M. Canal v. City of Chicago, 12 Ill. (2 Peck) 403, 406. A tax is the means by which a burden primarily borne by the state is transferred to the citizen. The obligation may have relation to debt already incurred, or it may be in anticipation, dependent on future contingencies. Three things are essential to a tax, as that term is understood by our Constitution: First, the ascertainment of a sum certain, or that can be rendered certain, to be imposed on the collective body of taxpayers; second, the legal imposition of that sum as an obligation on the collective body of taxpayers; third, an apportionment of such sum among individual taxpayers, so as to ascertain the part or share that each should bear. Morton v. Comptroller General, 4 S. C. (4 Rich.) 430, 453; Southern Ry. Co. v. Kay, 39 S. E. 785, 787, 62 S. C. 28. The word "tax," as a verb, when used in respect to fees or costs, is defined to mean to assess, fix, or determine judicially the amount of, as to tax the cost of an action in court. Anderson's Law Dictionary defines the word to mean to assess, adjust, fix, or determine, as to tax the items and the amount of costs in a case. Where a county auditor has charged and taxed the fees on the books of his office, as prescribed by law, he may be said to have assessed and determined the amount of fees allowed by law in the particular matter in which he has rendered services. Seiler v. State, 65 N. E. 922, 927, 160 Ind. 605. "Tax," as used in Act Ark. July 21, 1868, 87, providing that the Legislature should from time to time impose upon each railroad company to which bonds shall have been issued a tax equal to the amount of the annual interest upon such bonds, is not used in the sense of a tax that is to be assessed and levied for the support of the state or any of its subdivisions. A tax, in the legal signification of the term, has to be levied on all property by a uniform rule, not as to the rate, but in the mode of its assessment. The word "tax," as used in the act, is not in reference to a tax in its strict legal signification. Among the meanings of the word "tax," are a requisition; a demand; a burden. It is here used in the sense of a charge or burden. Tompkins v. Little Rock & Ft. S. R. Co. (U. S.) 15 Fed. 6, 13 (citing Worcest. Dict.). "Taxes" are generally classified as specific, ad valorem, and for public benefit. The last two classes are necessarily based upon an assessment of actual values, where as in the first class the valuation is either fixed by statute, or the tax is intended to subserve some supposed public interest or policy. Commonwealth v. Lehigh Val. R. Co., 18 Atl. 406, 411, 129 Pa. 429. Cooley on Taxation says: "Taxes are not demands against which a set-off is admissible. Their assessment does not constitute a technical judgment, nor are they contracts between party and party, either express or implied; but they are positive acts of the government through its various agents, binding on the inhabitants, and to the making and enforcing of which their personal consent individually is not required." A taxpayer, therefore, cannot set off against his taxes an indebtedness of the municipality to him, unless expressly authorized to do so by statute. Anderson v. City of Mayfield, 14 Ky. Law Rep. 370, 372, 93 Ky. 230, 19 S. W. 598. The word "tax," or "taxes," when used in the revenue act, shall be construed to include any tax, special assessment, or cost, interest, or penalty imposed upon property. Hurd's Rev. St. Ill. 1901, p. 1494, c. 120, § 292, subd. 14; Blake v. People, 109 Ill. 504, 525. The word "tax," whenever used in the general revenue laws, is defined by section 118 of such laws to mean “any tax, special assessment, or cost, interest, or penalty imposed upon property." State v. Irey, 60 N. W. 601, 608, 42 Neb. 186. The word "taxes," as used in an act re lating to municipal liens, means any county, city, borough, township, school, bridge, road, or poor taxes. 4 P. & L. Dig. Laws Pa. 1897, col. 1269, § 55. The words "tax," "taxes," "taxable" and "taxation," as used in the chapter relating to the assessment of taxes, shall be deemed to include county, district, and municipal corporation levies in all cases not inconsistent with the context. Code W. Va. 1899, p. 219, c. 29, § 99. "Taxation" is a mode of raising revenue for public purposes. Sharpless v. City of Philadelphia, 21 Pa. (9 Harris) 147, 169, 59 Am. Dec. 759; United States v. Wright, 3 Pittsb. Rep. 192, 194, 28 Fed. Cas. 789; Reelfoot Lake Levee Dist. v. Dawson, 36 S. W. 1041, 1044, 1045, 97 Tenn. 151, 34 L. R. A. 725. "Taxation" is the absolute conversion of private property to public use. Attorney General v. City of Eau Claire, 37 Wis. 400, 438. Taxation is a proportionable and reasonable assessment, which may be imposed from time to time upon persons or property. In re Meador (U. S.) 16 Fed. Cas. 1294, 1297. "Taxation" is a charge levied by the sovereign power upon the property of its subjects. It is not a charge upon its own property, nor upon property over which it has dominion. This excludes from taxation the property of the state, whether lands, revenues, or other property, and the property of the United States. Van Brocklin v. Anderson, 6 Sup. Ct. 670, 678, 117 U. S. 151, 29 L. Ed. 845; People v. McCreery, 34 Cal. 432, 456. "Taxation" is said to be an absolute power, which acknowledges no other limits than those expressly prescribed in the Constitution, and, like sovereign power of every description, is intrusted to the discretion of those who use it. North Missouri R. Co. v. Maguire, 49 Mo. 490, 500, 8 Am. Rep. 141 (citing McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U. S. [4 Wheat.] 316, 429, 4 L. Ed. 579). TAX-TAXATION from paying any tax to procure laborers to work on the same, means a tax on the individual, not on property. Fletcher v. Oliver, 25 Ark. 289, 295. "It is not taxation that the government should take from one the profits and gain of another. That is taxation which compels United States v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 84 "Taxation is the simple operation of taking small portions from a perpetually accumulating mass, susceptible of almost infinite division; and a power in one to take what is necessary for certain purposes is not in its nature incompatible with the power in another to take what is necessary for other purposes. Congress is authorized to lay and collect taxes, etc., to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and gen "Taxation" is the contribution of each one's proportion to the support of his gov-eral welfare of the United States. This ernment, only to serve public ends, and must from its very nature be imposed upon the public. This is fundamental in the idea of a tax. Baldwin v. Fuller, 39 N. J. Law (10 Vroom) 576, 584. By "taxation" is meant a certain mode of raising revenue for a public purpose, in which the community that pays it has an interest. Manistee Lumber Co. v. Springfield Tp., 92 Mich. 277, 280, 52 N. W. 468, 469 (citing Sharpless v. City of Philadelphia, 21 Pa. [9 Harris] 147, 59 Am. Dec. 759). A "power of taxation" is a power to enforce contribution from persons and prop erty for the maintenance of the government. Shurtleff v. City of Chicago, 60 N. E. 870, 871, 190 Ill. 473. By "taxation," as used in Comp. St. c. 12a, relating to cities of the metropolitan class, and providing for a system of taxation, is meant the providing of revenue for the ordinary expenses. Littlefield v. State, 60 N. W. 724, 725, 42 Neb. 223, 28 L. R. A. 588, 47 Am. St. Rep. 697. "Taxation" was defined by the court in Knowlton v. Rock County Sup'rs, 9 Wis. 410, 418, as the act of laying a tax or imposing impositions, burdens, or charges upon persons or property within the state. It is the process or means by which the taxing power is exercised. The power of taxation is one of the essential attributes of sov ereignty, and is inherent in and necessary to the very existence of every government. State v. Thorne, 87 N. W. 797, 798, 112 Wis. 81, 55 L. R. A. 956. "Tax," as used in Little Rock City Charter, 29, providing that the inhabitants of Little Rock are exempted from working on any road beyond the limits of the city and does not interfere with the power of the states to tax for the support of their own government; nor is the exercise of that power by the states an exercise of any portion of the power granted to the United States." Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U. S. (9 Wheat.) 1, 199, 6 L. Ed. 23. Must be enforceable. The word "tax" in its ordinary acceptation means a sum imposed or levied by government or other authority. It is a general term, applied to whatever is required by the government or legal authority thereof to be paid by the people, and presupposes that the burden is imposed by some authority other than that of the individual taxed; else it would not be a tax, but a voluntary contribution. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773, 783, 14 Am. Rep. 640. A tax that cannot be exacted by any remedy is no tax at all. Herriott v. Potter, 89 N. W. 91, 92, 115 Iowa, 648. Must be local. "Taxation," in order to be valid, must be of a public nature or for a public purpose, and must also be local. It is the essence of taxation that it should compel the discharge of a burden by those on whom it rests. An attempt to compel one county or municipality to pay a charge properly resting on the inhabitants of another separate and distinct district or community would be an arbitrary and unauthorized exercise of power. It would be taking private property for private use, and in no proper sense could it be regarded as taxation, but rather in the nature of confiscation. It is true that it is not necessary that the money raised by taxation should always be expended within the district where it is levied and collected, but it may be expended for objects outside of the district, in which the residents of the district have in a legal sense an interest. District interest is the test whether an object is or is not a proper subject for taxation. A law providing that property in an unorganized county should be subject to taxation in the nearest organized county is an attempt on the part of the Legislature to tax one community for the benefit of another, and is void from the fact that all taxation must be public and local, and for objects in which those who pay the taxes have, in a legal sense, some interest, and from which they may receive some benefit. Farris v. Vannier, 42 N. W. 31, 33, 6 Dak. 186, 3 L. R. A. 713. Must be uniform. "Taxation" is an act of sovereignty, to be performed, so far as it conveniently can be, with justice and equality to all. United Railways & Electric Co. v. City of Baltimore, 49 Atl. 655, 656, 93 Md. 630, 52 L. R. A. 772; Herrman v. Town of Guttenberg, 43 Atl. 703, 706, 62 N. J. Law, 605; People v. Daniels, 22 Pac. 159-161, 6 Utah, 288, 5 L. R. A. 444; Turner v. Althaus, 6 Neb. 54, 77; Exchange Bank v. Hines, 3 Ohio St. 1, 10; And exemptions, however meritorious, are acts of grace, and must be strictly construed, and every reasonable intendment must be made that it was not the design to surrender the power of taxation. Benedict v. City of New Orleans, 11 South. 41, 42, 44 La. Ann. 793 (citing Desty, Tax'n, p. 80). "Taxes" are contributions imposed by the government for the support of the state. In all just governments it should be a cardinal principal that such imposition should be equal, and that all the property within the state should contribute its equal share of the burden imposed. This is on the principle that, as all the property within the state is equally protected by its laws and institutions, so all property within its boundaries should alike equally contribute to their maintenance and enforcement. International Life Assur. Soc. of London v. Commissioners of Taxes (N. Y.) 28 Barb. 318, 319. Must be for public purposes. A tax is an imposition for the supply of the public treasury, and not for the supply of individuals or private corporations. People v. McAdams, 82 Ill. 356, 361. property by devise or inheritance from another. Act April 1, 1895, as amended by Act March 17, 1897, imposing a collateral suc cession tax to create a fund for maintaining free scholarships in the university, distributed on competitive examinations to applicants without means, is a tax for purely private purposes, in violation of the Constitution. State ex rel. Garth v. Switzler, 45 S. W. 245, 248, 143 Mo. 287, 40 L. R. A. 280, 65 Am. St. Rep. 653. of the public treasury, and not for the supply of individuals or private corporations, however beneficial they may be. Imposing on agents of foreign insurance companies the duty of paying 2 per cent. on the premiums received by them to the Philadelphia Association for the Relief of Disabled Firemen is not a tax. Philadelphia Ass'n for Relief of Disabled Firemen v. Wood, 39 Pa. (3 Wright) 73, 82. A tax is an imposition for the supply The object or purpose to which a tax is applied is to some extent public; that is, its use is not confined exclusively to the benefit of the particular individual taxpayer, but extends to some common object in which more or less individuals have an interest. Yet, it is obvious that a tax may be so levied and so limited in its character and object as not to be a public tax. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773, 783, 14 Am. Rep. 640. A tax, says Webster's Dictionary, "is a rate or sum of money assessed on the person or property of a citizen by the government for the use of the nation or state." "Taxes are burdens or charges imposed by the Legislature upon persons or property to raise money for public purposes. To lay with one hand the power of the government on the property of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it upon favorite individuals, aid private enterprises, and build up private fortunes, is none the less a robbery, because it is done under the forms of law and is called 'taxation.' This is not legislation. It is a decree under legislative forms." Thus a state cannot pass a law authorizing cities to issue bonds in the aid of private manufacturing enterprises. Citizens' Saving & Loan Ass'n v. Topeka, 87 U. S. (20 Wall.) 655, 664, 22 L. Ed. 455. The word "taxation," as used in Const. art. 8, § 1, declaring that the rule of taxaThe term "taxes" in Const. art. 10, § 3, tion shall be uniform, does not prohibit the which provides that taxes may be levied and enactment of a statute requiring fire insurcollected for public purposes only, is used in ance agents to pay a percentage on preits generic sense, as expounded by lexicog- miums collected for the benefit of the fire raphers, judges, and lawyers long before department of the city in which the property its use in our organic law. In the sense insured is located, since the percentage rethat taxes can only be levied for a public pur- quired to be paid is not a tax on the agent pose, that word includes every character and or his occupation, but the effect of the act kind of a tax, general or special. The term is to go back and reach the company which as there used includes an excise upon the the agent represents. Fire Department of right of a person or corporation to receive | Milwaukee v. Helfenstein, 16 Wis. 136, 139. |