Session for 1919, in connection with other tax legislation—principally chap. 230 of the Session Laws of 1917. For convenience in following the discussion of the main features of the legislation in question, the various acts will be referred to in terms descriptive of their subject-matter, with the necessary references in parentheses, and to facilitate a ready understanding of the matter in controversy it is deemed proper to make a brief general historical statement in the margin showing the methods employed at various times and the results achieved in the taxation of corporate stock and moneys and credits generally.
Under the Constitution as it stood prior to an amendment adopted in 1914 (article 20; see Laws 1915, p. 404), all property was required to be assessed and taxed uniformly according to its value (§ 176). This included property of every description, though of course it did not require ‘double taxation of credits, so creditors have been allowed, at times, to deduct their bona fide indebtedness from their credits (chap. 132, Session Laws of 1890), and moneys and credits belonging to banks have uniformly been exempted from taxation, though the stock has always been taxable to the holders at the place where the bank is located (Session Laws of 1890, chap. 132, §§ 2, 16 and 24; §§ 2075, 2103, § 19 and 20, Compiled Laws of 1913). Individual owners of stocks in banks or other corporations (domestic) required to report were not required to list such stock. § 2102, Compiled Laws of 1913. As a consequence bank stock was listed to the stockholder by the accounting officer of the bank, other domestic corporations were taxed upon their property the same as individuals, and the stockholders were not taxed on the shares. If it was found that an excess value attached to the stock, above the value of the taxable property, it was taxed to the corporation, or, if not, at least theoretically it should have been, as “bonds or stocks.” Section 2110, Compiled Laws of 1913. Such a valuation was listed under an item (ff 23, § 2103) set apart for the value of the shares of capital stock. While the law was in this condition moneys and intangible property practically ceased to be ‘an actual subject of taxation in the state (First Report, N. D. Tax Commission 1912, chap. 4), the aggregate amount of money and credits listed for the entire state being about three-fourths of a million dollars. When the Constitution was so amended as to permit property to be classified for taxation,“ the Legislature immediately sought to subject moneys and credits to a tax that could be applied in practice. It adopted such a measure in 1915, but the
