State v. Dutton
State v. Dutton
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant prosecutes this appeal from a judgment of the circuit court, which judgment sustained and approved the finding of the board of supervisors of Warren county, rejecting an attempted assessment for taxation against the appellee upon the following state of facts: Appellee, on September 11, 1911, loaned to E. W. Jones six thousand one hundred dollars, for which be took Jones’ notes which bore interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum. On the 24th day of February, 1912, chapter 241, Laws of 1912, became effective. Among other things, this law, in brief, exempted from taxation money loaned at not over six per cent, per annum. Section 2 of this act expressly provides “that this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.” In December, 1916, the sheriff of Warren county, by order of the state revenue agent, made, by way of an additional assessment for back taxes upon solvent credits, money loaned, etc., which had escaped taxation by reason of not having been previously assessed, an assessment against appellee for the year 1912 for the loan above mentioned. The appellee contested before the board of supervisors this assessment, basing his contention upon the fact that under chapter 241, Laws of 1912, this loan was exempt from taxation for that year. The board of supervisors sustained the contention of appellee, and ordered the assessment against him, based on this loan, to be stricken from the rolls.
It is true that this loan should have been assessed to the appellee by the assessor under the above sections of the Code. When this act was passed by the legislature it knew of these sections of the Code. It also knew that at the time of the passage of the act the taxes were not due or collectable. It also knew that the assessment roll of the assessor was not then due to be returned to the board of supervisors. The meaning of the act, in our judgment, is plain. The act expressly, provides that “all money loaned at a rate of interest not exceeding six per cent, per annum shall be exempt from taxes of any character whatever;” and, further, it is provided that the act “take effect and be in force from and after February 24, 1912.” The intention of the act was to exempt from taxes money loaned at this rate of interest from and after its passage. If the assessor had assessed this loan, then the appellee could have been relieved of this assessment before the taxes were collected, ’ at any time after the passage of the act. It therefore became unnecessary for the board of supervisors to
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Status
- 86 Miss. 22
- Syllabus
- Taxation. Exemptions. Money loaned. Statute. Construction. While money loaned in September, 1911, at five per cent, per an-num, should have been assessed to the owner in 1912, under Code 1906, section 4257 (Hemingway’s Code, section 6888), fixing the liability for taxable property on February 1st, and section 4264 (Hemingway’s Code, section 6898), requiring a statement of property owned on February 1st, to be made to the assessor, still the owner was entitled to exemption from taxes oh such loan for the year 1912 since Laws 1912, chapter 251, became effective February 24th, 1912, and this exempted fróm taxation monéy loaned at not over six per cent, and the taxes for 1912, were not due and payable when the act went into effect.