Laws, 1907, c. 602. Mortgages are included in the classification of all personal

Tennessee

Constitution, 1870, art. 2, sec. 28. All property real, personal or mixed, shall be taxed. All property shall be taxed according to its value, that value to be ascertained in such manner as the legislature shall di- rect, so that taxes shall be equal and uniform through- out the state.

Present Law. Laws, 1907, c. 602. Mortgages are included in the classification of all personal property liable to assessment (sec. 8, class 7). In a suit brought to collect any chose in action, if the defend- ant can prove that the holder did not give in such credit for taxation for the preceding year, the owner is to be taxed with all the court costs of the case (sec. 14).

Texas

Constitution, 1876, art. 8, sec. 1. Taxation shall be equal and uniform. All property in this state, whether owned by natural persons or corporations, other than municipal, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, which shall be ascertained as may be provided by law.

Present Law. Rev. St. 1897. Mortgages are tax- able as personal property, and personal property for the purposes of taxation is deemed to include all mon- eys at interest due the person to be taxed over and above what he pays interest for, while the term “credits” means all demands secured by deed or mort- gage (sec. 5063, 5064).

Utah

Constitution, 1895, art. 13, sec. 2. All property in the state, not exempt under the laws of the United States or under this constitution, shall be taxed in pro- portion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law. (The word “property” includes money and credits.)

sec. 12. Nothing in this constitution shall be con- strued to prevent the legislature from providing a stamp tax or a tax based on income, occupation, li- censes, franchises or mortgages.

Present Law. St. 1898, Laws, 1905. Mortgages are taxable as personal property. The assessor may require a statement of all solvent credits, secured or unsecured, from any person. He may deduct from the sum total of such credits only such debts secured or unsecured as may be owing by the person assessed (Laws, 1905, c. 125). The county recorders must transmit to the assessor of the county in which the mortgagee resides a complete abstract of all mortgages remaining unsatisfied on the records of his office, Stat- utes, (sec. 2531).

Vermont

Constitution, 1793, c. 1, art. 9. No part of any per- son’s property can be justly taken from him, or ap- plied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the Representative Body of the freemen. Previous to any law being made to raise a tax, the purpose for which it is to be raised ought to appear evident to the legislature to be of more service to the community than the money would be if not collected.

Present Law. St., 1906, sec. 504. Mortgages are taxable as personal property (sec. 559). The town clerk is required to prepare a statement of all mort- gages, together with the amount secured, for the use of the listers.

Virginia

Constitution, 1902, art. 13, sec. 168, All property, except as herein provided, shall be taxed; all taxes whether state, local, or municipal, shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws.

Present Law. Laws, Ex. Session, 1903, c. 148. It would seem that mortgages are taxable in two ways in Virginia. First, all bonds, notes, and other evi- dences of debt, whether secured by deed of trust, judgment or otherwise, are subject to a tax of twenty- five cents on every hundred dollars of value for the expenses of government, and a further tax of ten cents on every hundred dollars of the value for the’ support of the free public schools (sec. 8 and 9). Second, every contract relating to real estate or per- sonal property, whether it be a deed or not, is sub- ject to a tax of fifty cents when admitted to record. When the consideration exceeds three hundred, but does not exceed one thousand dollars, the tax is to be one dollar and where the consideration exceeds one thousand dollars, an additional tax of ten cents on every one hundred or fraction, is levied. Deeds of trust and mortgages given by railroad and other in- ternal improvement companies are subject to the same tax. In the case of railroads the amount of the mort- gage indebtedness, subject to the rate as levied, de- pends upon the proportional number of miles of the line within and without the state (sec. 13).

Washington

Constitution, 1889, art. 7, sec. 1. All property in the state, not exempt under the laws of the United States, or under this constitution, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law.

History. During the extraordinary session of the legislature held in 1901 (c. 2), a law was passed pro- viding that mortgages and all credit for the purchase of real estate were not to be considered as property for the purposes of taxation. This law remained in force until the present law was enacted in 1907.

Present Law. Laws, 1907, c. 48. Under the pres- ent law all moneys and credits are exempt from taxa- tion. The law states that all mortgages, notes, ac- counts, moneys, certificates of deposit, tax certificates, judgments, state, county, municipal, and school dis- trict bonds and warrants, are not to be considered as property for the purposes of taxation, and no deduction is to be allowed on account of an indebtedness owed.