OF THE

STATE BOARD

OF

TAX COMMISSIONERS

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK

TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MARCH 31, 1913

ALBANY

J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS

No. 55.

IN SENATE

MARCH 31, 1913.

ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

State Board of Tax Commissioners

OF THE

STATE OF NEW YORK.

ALBANY, N. Y., March 31, 1913.

To Hon. MARTIN H. GLYNN, President of the Senate:

SIR. We have the honor herewith to transmit our annual re-

port for the year 1912.

THOMAS F. BYRNES,

WILLIAM H. SULLIVAN,

JOSEPH S. SCHWAB,

REPORT.

ALBANY, N. Y., March 31, 1913.

To the Legislature of the State of New York:

The State Board of Tax Commissioners respectfully submits for the consideration of the Legislature the following report for the year 1912:

REVISION OF TAX LAW.

Taxation is a subject of the closest interest to the people, and it should be written the simplest in our laws.

The population of the State in 1860 was 3,880,735, and in 1910, 9,113,614, or an increase in fifty (50) years of one hundred thirty-four and eighty-four one hundredths per centum (134.84%). The aggregate of all taxes in the State in 1860 was $18,956,024 and in 1911, $239,504,913, or an increase of one thousand one hundred sixty-three and forty-seven one hundredths per centum (1,163.47%) in taxes. The increase of taxes in a period of fifty (50) years was eight and six tenths (8.6) times the increase in population for the same period.

The present Tax Law is chaotic and does not meet the conditions of to-day. Most of it has been built on from time to time to meet new needs of revenue, without any systematic method of how additional revenue should be obtained. Many indirect taxes were created with the view only to meet the then existing needs of State expenditures. In most cases the localities suffered in the shifting of the taxable property from local to State jurisdiction. In other cases the property, after the tax had once been paid to the State, fell into the exempt class.

Laws have been passed dealing with the subject of taxation, but instead of such acts finding a place in the tax law, they have been drafted into any one of the many consolidated laws.