The legislature shall provide a uniform rule of taxation, except on property paying specific taxes

Michigan

Constitution, 1850, art. 14, sec. 11. The legislature shall provide a uniform rule of taxation, except on property paying specific taxes, and taxes shall be levied on such property as shall be prescribed by law.

Present Law. Complied Laws, 1897. In Michigan mortgages are taxab’e as personal property, (sec. 3824, 3831)

Minnesota

Constitution, art. 9, sec. 1. The power of taxation shall never be surrendered, suspended, or contracted away. Taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects, and shall be levied and collected for public purposes. (Amendment passed in 1906)

Present Lam’. Laws, 1907, c. 328. In Minnesota mortgages are subject to a registration tax of fifty cents on the one hundred dollars, or major fraction thereof. A mortgage is defined as any instrument creating or evidencing a lien of any kind on real property, real estate, or land, given or taken as se- curity for a debt, even though such debt may also be secured in part by a lien upon personalty. An execu- tory contract for the sale of land is also treated as a mortgage, the unpaid balance to be considered as the face value. The law does not apply to correction mortgages, mortgages taken in good faith by persons or corporations whose personal property is expressly exempt from taxation by law, or to mortgages of per- sons or corporatioins whose property is taxed upon the basis of gross earnings, or other method of commuta- tion in lieu of all other taxes.

The tax imposed amounts to fifty cents on each one hundred dollars, or major fraction thereof, of the principal debt or obligation secured by real property situated within the state.

If the real estate given as security is situated partly within and partly without the state, the tax imposed by the state of Minnesota is in the proportion that the value of the real estate within the state bears to the value of the entire property given as security, and if the real property given as security is situated in more than one county of the state, the entire tax is first paid in the county where the mortgage is presented for record, and then this amount is divided between or among the counties in the same ratio as the assessed value of the real property covered by the mortgage in each county bears to the assessed value of all the property described in the mortgage. In the case of a mortgage given in trust, to secure the payment of bonds or other obligations to be issued, a statement may be incorporated, showing the amount already is- sued or to be issued forthwith. The tax is computed upon this amount and no obligations issued in excess of this aggregate are to be valid for any purpose unless the additional tax is paid and the receipt properly en- dorsed.

All mortgages together with the debts or obligations secured and the papers evidencing such debts, are to be exempt from all other taxes if the provisions of this law have been complied with, but the payment of this tax does not exempt such property from the opera- tions of the law relating to the taxation of gifts and inheritances, or those governing the taxation of banks, savings banks, or trust companies.

The tax imposed by this act is paid to the treasurer of the county in which the mortgaged land or some part of it, is situated. A receipt showing that the tax has been paid is endorsed on the mortgage by the treasurer, is countersigned by the county auditor and then the mortgage together with the receipt is re- corded by the register of deeds. Neither the mort- gage, papers relating to its foreclosure, nor any as- signments or satisfaction is to be registered, unless the tax has been paid, and in addition to this, neither the mortgage nor any record of it is to be received as evidence in any court or to have any validity as no- tice unless the provisions of this act have been com- plied with.

All mortgages recorded prior to April 30, 1907, may become taxable under the provisions of this law if the owner pays the tax upon the amount of the debt se- cured and obtains the treasurer’s receipt showing that the payment has been made. This receipt is then re- corded on -the margin of the mortgage record.

36 MORTGAGE TAXATION

The taxes paid to the county treasurers are to be apportioned and distributed in the same manner as the real estate taxes paid upon the real estate described in the mortgage.

Mississippi

Constitution, 1890, sec. 112. Property shall be as- sessed for taxes under general laws and by uniform rules according to its true value.

Present Law. Code, 1906, sees. 4258, 4266. Mort- gages in Mississippi are taxable as personal property. Money loaned at interest either within or without the state, is to be assessed and taxed to the owner at his place of residence.

Missouri

History. A joint resolution was drawn up in 1899 (Laws, 1899, p. 383) providing for an amendment to the constitution whereby mortgages and mortgaged property were to be taxable under a law very similar to the California law of 1879. This amendment was adopted by the people in 1900 (Laws 1905, p. 315). In a case arising under the law the court held that this amendment so discriminated between corporations and persons a corporation being for the purpose of taxa- tion a “person” within the fourteenth amendment as to deny to railroads and other quasi public corpora- tions “the equal protection of the law,” in that it re- quired the value of farm lands to be lessened, for taxation purposes, by the value of such security, but did not permit the value of the property of such cor- porations to be decreased by the value of their bonded and other indebtedness. The constitutional provision was held unconstitutional. (Russell v. Croy, 164 Mo. 69, 1901)

A California case involving the same question was declared constitutional (C. P. R. R. Co. v. Board of Equalization, 60 Cal. 35, 1882), and unfortunately when a group of similar California cases were carried to the Supreme court of the United States they were decided upon other grounds. (118 U. S. 394. See also 18 Fed. Rep. 385.) After the law was declared unconstitutional in Missouri a joint resolution was passed in 1901 to repeal it (Laws 1901, p. 261), and it was repealed by a vote of the people in 1902 (Laws 1905, p. 317).

Constitution, 1875, art. 10, sec. 3. Taxes may be levied and collected for public purposes only, they shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects with- in the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and all taxes shall be levied and collected by gen- eral laws. sec. 4. All property subject to taxation shall be taxed in proportion to its value.

Present Law. Ann. St. 1906. In Missouri at the present time mortgages are taxable as personal prop- erty. The term “credits” is defined to include all money loaned and all indebtedness by deed, contract, mortgage or pledge of property of whatsoever kind, (sec. 9123), and the list of every taxable person must contain an aggregate statement of all solvent notes secured by mortgage or deed of trust (sec. 9144).

The county recorders are required to keep a mort- gage list with such information as may be necessary to enable the assessor to place all mortgages on the assessment rolls (sec. 9173).