out as a remedy for some ailment affecting the human or animal body. Petrolatum was placed by the framers of the act in the category with "perfumery and cosmetics and other similar articles," and, like other articles of its class, is specified therein as taxable, and the exemptions provided in section 20 have no application to it; therefore, in order that the stamp tax shall be properly charged to such quantities of petrolatum as are sold direct to the dispensing druggist or other consumer, it becomes the duty of the refiner to stamp such packages before removal from the place of manufacture or refinery. This office was advised by your representative that refiners usually do sell from 10 to 50 pound packages, and occasionally larger, direct to the dispensing druggists and other consumers, and that such packages the Beaver Refining Company invariably stamp.

This office at any time will cheerfully explain its position on this or any question involving the revenue, and will take under careful consideration any suggestions that may from time to time be offered that have for their object the attainment of a more simple or equitable method for the collection of the revenues.

Respectfully, yours,

Mr. C. A. WALES,

G. W. WILSON, Commissioner.

President, Beaver Refining Company, Washington, Pa.

PIPE-LINE COMPANIES.

(21341.)

Special tax-Gross receipts.

Tax imposed by section 27, act of June 13, 1898, held to apply to gross receipts of persons, firms, or companies owning or controlling any pipe line for transporting natural gas.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE,

Washington, D. C., July 1, 1899.

SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 23d instant, stating that the Columbus Gas Company has submitted the question whether natural or artificial gas companies are subject to tax under the war-revenue act; and if so, whether in case of artificial gas the returns made by the company should include sales of tar, ammonia, coke, etc.

The tax imposed by section 27 of the act named is required by that section to be paid by "every person, firm, corporation, or company carrying on or doing the business of refining petroleum or refining sugar, or owning or controlling any pipe line for the transportation of oil or other products, where gross annual receipts exceed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

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It is very evident from the language used in this section that Congress intended that the tax so imposed should apply to products other

than oil when transported by means of a pipe line; and inasmuch as natural gas is as much a product as natural oil (both of which being often obtained from the same source), this office is clearly of the opinion that the receipts derived from the transportation of gas by such means are taxable under the section named.

The term "pipe line," however, as understood by this office, applies only to the comparatively recent system of transportation by which oil, or other products, are conveyed from place to place through pipes, instead of in tanks, barrels, etc., transported by rail or other conveyance, and is not intended to apply to gas mains and pipes through which gas is conveyed and distributed directly to the consumer. As construed, therefore, this section of the act does not extend to persons, firms, and companies owning or controlling gas plants and supplying gas directly to consumers as last above indicated. So far as this office is informed, artificial gas companies use their mains and connecting pipes for no other purpose; and no question, therefore, arises under the act, in such cases, as to the receipts from sales of by-products referred to in your letter.

Respectfully, yours,

Mr. JOHN C. ENTREKIN,

ROBT. WILLIAMS, Jr.,

Acting Commissioner.

Collector Eleventh District, Chillicothe, Ohio.

(21494.)

Special tax-Gross receipts.

Persons, firms, and companies owning or controlling pipe lines connected with mains or pipes for distributing natural or artificial gas not exempt from tax imposed by section 27, act of June 13, 1898.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE,

Washington, D. C., August 10, 1899.

SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 7th instant, transmitting a letter from the Philadelphia Company, of your city, in reply to your demand on that company for returns of its gross receipts taxable under section 27 of the war-revenue act. You state that this company transports natural gas direct from the wells to the consumers, and has no plant, and the company, in its letter, claims exemption from tax on this ground, and in support of its claim refers to Treasury decision 21341 (page 220).

As stated in that decision, the term "pipe line," as used in section 27, does not, in the opinion of this office, extend to "gas mains and pipes through which gas is conveyed and distributed directly to the consumer." This portion of the decision, while having special reference to artificial gas, would, of course, under the same conditions,

also apply to natural gas. But, ordinarily, natural gas is first transported from the wells by pipe line to some central or convenient point, and then introduced into distributing mains or pipes, and at a much lower pressure. In such cases, two systems are used-one for transporting and the other for distributing the gas. The fact that the two systems are connected one with the other, and are owned or controlled by the same company, would not exempt the company from tax liability under section 27.

In all cases, therefore, where natural or artificial gas is transported by pipe line, either independently or in connection with distributing mains or pipes, monthly returns of the gross amount of all receipts should be made by the person, firm, or company owning or controlling such pipe line.

Respectfully, yours,

G. W. WILSON, Commissioner. Mr. JAMES S. FRUIT, Collector Twenty-third District, Pittsburg, Pa.

POST STAMPING OF INSTRUMENTS AND DOCUMENTS.

(20696.)

Stamping unstamped instruments.

When deputy collectors can remit penalties and stamp instruments left unstamped from inadvertence or mistake.-Instruments to be validated may be sent to collector by mail, with affidavit, instead of being personally brought to the collector's office.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE,

Washington, D. C., February 10, 1899. SIR: Your letter of the 25th ultimo in regard to stamping unstamped instruments, where the omission was accidental or where the party failed to affix the stamp through ignorance, has been received.

It has been held that a deputy collector, by virtue of his ordinary duties as such, has no power to remit penalties and to stamp or authorize the stamping of instruments when they have been left unstamped from inadvertence or mistake, except when, from the inability or sickness of the collector, he acts by special authority in his place. The best evidence that this special authority has been devolved upon the deputy is the collector's official seal affixed to the certificate which remits the penalty and shows the ground upon which the stamp has been subsequently affixed. Unless the act of the deputy is authenticated with the official seal of the collector, or it is shown by sufficient evidence aliunde that the collector was sick or otherwise unable to act at the time, and that the deputy was authorized for the time being to exercise the power in question, the same should be disregarded and treated as a nullity. (Brown v. Crandall, 23 Iowa, 112.)

It is not necessary that the parties who live 200 miles from your office should go in person. The law in regard to remitting the penalty says:

Where it shall appear to said collector, upon oath or otherwise, to his satisfaction, that any such instrument has not been duly stamped, at the time of making or issuing the same, by reason of accident, mistake, inadvertence, or urgent necessity, and without any willful design to defraud the United States of the stamp, or to evade or delay the payment thereof, then, and in such case, if such instrument, or if the original be lost, a copy thereof, duly certified by the officer having charge of any records in which such original is required to be recorded, or otherwise duly proven to the satisfaction of the collector, shall, within twelve calendar months after the making or issuing thereof, be brought to the said collector of internal revenue to be stamped, etc.

This should receive a liberal rather than a strict construction, the better to effectuate justice and carry out the reason and policy of the law. Accordingly, it has been held that the party can make an affidavit and forward it to the collector with the tax due and the instrument which it is desired to have validated.

Respectfully, yours,

Mr. JOHN M. KEMBLE,

G. W. WILSON, Acting Commissioner.

Collector Fourth District, Burlington, Iowa.

(21153.)

Stamp tax-Affixing and canceling of stamps by recorders of deeds. Circumstances under which a recorder or register of deeds can legally affix and

cancel stamps.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE,

Washington, D. C., May 15, 1899.

SIR: This office is in receipt of your letter of May 1, 1899, in which you state that you have deeds of conveyance and other taxable instruments sent you from distant parts of the country for record. These instruments are executed before justices of the peace and other officers away from business centers, and in a number of instances the parties to an instrument, as well as the officer before whom the acknowledg ment is taken, are ignorant of the law regulating the question of taxation on the instruments. These instruments are sent to you for record, accompanied with the request that you affix and cancel the required amount of documentary stamps, and this request is made without intent to evade the law or defraud the Government, the reverse of this being the case, and you ask if it is permissible for you to comply with these requests.

In reply, you are informed that this office has given this subject a great deal of consideration, with the desire that some way might be found whereby such requests might be complied with without contravening the requirements of the law. The request that you make must, however, be denied for this reason: In the majority of cases wherein instruments are sent to you with the request that you affix and cancel the appropriate stamps, there has been a complete delivery of the instrument before it reaches your hands for record. The unqualified requirement of the law is that every instrument subject to taxation shall have affixed and canceled the proper stamp before the instrument is issued or delivered, and if the instrument has been delivered without being stamped before reaching your hands, this office could not assume legislative functions and alter the law to permit you to stamp the instrument when the requirements of law are otherwise. This office, however, places this construction upon the law in regard to the stamping of instruments: The parties to an instrument can, by a proper power of attorney or an equivalent written instrument, authorize a person to affix and cancel the stamps that are necessary to be affixed to the instrument, if this occurs before the party who makes or signs the instrument delivers it to the party to whom it is to be issued. Beyond this, this office can not go.

Up to this point there is not in law a delivery. In other words, the grantor in a deed of conveyance can authorize a person to affix and cancel the stamps necessary before actual or constructive delivery to the grantee, and if a grantor in a deed, a mortgagor in a mortgage, or a person holding a similar position in any instrument authorizes you by proper authority to affix and cancel the necessary documentary stamp to an instrument, before you actually deliver the instrument to the grantee, this office is of the opinion that under these circumstances the law will have been sufficiently complied with if the ruling herein is strictly followed, because up to the point of your affixing and canceling the stamps there has not been a delivery in law by the grantor.

This ruling has been made with a due regard to the requirements of the law and the rights of parties to the instruments that are subject to taxation, and with a desire to assist parties who are ignorant of the requirements of the law in regard to the taxation of documents. G. W. WILSON, Commissioner.

Respectfully, yours,

Mr. CHARLES F. COBURN,

Register of Deeds, Farmington, Me.