who shall cause the necessary surveys to be made at the expense of the town. If a part only of a tract of real property is liable to taxation as nonresident and the assessors can not otherwise designate such part, they shall notify the supervisor of the town, who shall cause a survey and two manuscript maps to be made for the purpose of ascertaining the situation and quantity of such part. One of such maps shall be delivered to the county treasurer and by him to be transmitted to the comptroller in case the county in which the land is situated embraces a part of the forest preserve; and in other counties it shall be retained by him. The other map shall be delivered to the assessors, who shall then complete the assessment of the tract and deposit the map in the town clerk's office for the information of future assessors. The expense of making such survey shall be immediately repaid to the supervisor out of the county treasury and added by the board of supervisors to the tax on such tract, distinguishing it from the ordinary tax.

[R. S., pt. I, ch. 13, tit. II, § 13, subds. 4-6, § 14; 8th ed., 1098, without change of substance, except that the survey and map are only required to be sent to comptroller from counties in the forest preserve, as it is in those counties only that the comptroller collects the nonresident unpaid taxes. In the remainder of the state such taxes are collected by the county treasurer.]

§ 31. Corporations, how assessed. The assessors shall assess corporations liable to taxation in their respective tax districts upon their assessment-rolls in the following manner:

1. In the first column the name of each corporation, and under its name the amount of its capital stock paid in and secured to be paid in; the amount paid by it for real property then owned by it wherever situated; the amount of all surplus profits or reserve funds exceeding ten per centum of their capital, after deducting therefrom the amount of said real property and the amount of its stock, if any, belonging to the state and to incorporated literary and charitable institutions.

2. In the second column the quantity of real property owned by such corporation and situated within their tax district.

3. In the third column the actual value of such real property. 4. In the fourth column the amount of the capital stock paid in and secured to be paid in and of all of such surplus profits or reserve funds as aforesaid after deducting the sums paid out for all the real estate of the company wherever the same may be situated and then belonging to it, and the amount of stock, if any, belonging to the people of the state and to incorporated literary and charitable institutions.

[R. S., pt. I, ch. 13, tit. IV, § 6; 8th ed., 1150,

without change in substance.]

§ 32. Assessment of agent, trustee, guardian or executor.- If a person holds taxable property as agent, trustee, guardian, executor or administrator, he shall be assessed therefor as such, with the addition to his name of his representative character, and such assessment shall be carried out in a separate line from his individual assessment.

[R. S., pt. I, ch. 13, tit. II, § 10; 8th ed., 1097,

without change of substance, except that "agent" is added.]

§ 33. Assessment of omitted property.— The assessors of any tax district shall, upon their own motion, or upon the application of any taxpayer therein, enter in the assessment-roll of the current year any property shown to have been omitted from the assessment-roll of the preceding year, at the valuation of that year, or if not then valued, at such valuation as the assessors shall determine for the preceding year, and such valuation shall be stated in a separate line from the valuation of the current year.

[L. 1865, ch. 453, § 1; R. S., 8th ed., 1111.

The original law provides that the omitted property shall be assessed on the application of three taxpayers. This section authorizes the assessors to make the assessment on their own motion or on the application of one taxpayer. Otherwise there is no change of substance.]

§ 34. Debts owing to nonresidents of the United States, how assessed. Every agent in any county of a nonresident creditor having debts owing to him, taxable in any county of the state, shall annually, on or before June first, furnish to the county treasurer of the county where the debtor resides, a true and accurate statement verified by his oath, of such debts owing on the first day of May next preceding in each town or ward in such county. The county treasurer shall, immediately upon the receipt of such statement, make out and transmit to the assessors of every tax district in the county in which any such debtor resides, a copy of so much of such statement as relates to the tax district of such assessors, with the name of the creditor. The assessors on receipt of such statement from the county treasurer shall, within the time in which they are required to complete the assessment-roll, enter therein the name of such nonresident creditor, and the aggregate amount due him in such tax district on the first day of May next preceding, in the same manner as other personal property is entered on the roll, adding the name of the debtor owing such debt. Any agent neglecting or refusing without good cause to furnish. such statement to the county treasurer shall forfeit to the county in which the debtor resides the sum of five hundred dollars, recoverable by the district attorney, if the existence of such debts was known to the agent.

[L. 1851, ch. 371, § 2-5; R. S., 8th ed., 1084,

without change of substance, except that the date for rendering the statement is changed from July twenty-fifth to June first.

The act from which this section is derived (L. 1851, ch. 371), makes debts due to nonresidents of the United States for the purchase of real property, taxable as personal property within the state. The act would seem to raise a serious question as to the jurisdiction of the state to assess nontangible personal property, where the owner thereof resides without the state. There appears, however, to have been no authoritative decision of the courts of this state as to the power of the legislature to pass the law.

Cooley lays down the rule broadly that "Debts owing to foreign creditors by either corporations or individuals are not the subject of taxation. The creditor cannot be taxed, because he is not within the jurisdiction, and the debts can not be taxed in the debtors' hands, through any fiction of the law, which is to treat them as being for this purpose, the property of the debtor." (Cooley, on taxes, p. 22.)

The leading case upon the subject is reported in 15 Wall., 300, in which an attempt was made to tax in the state of Pennsyl vania the bonds of a Pennsylvania railroad company, secured by mortgage, and held by nonresidents of the state. The supreme court of the United States laid down the rule unequivocally that credits of that sort were not within the jurisdiction of the state, so as to render them subject to taxation; and again in Kirkland v. Hotchkiss, 100 United States, 491, the supreme court laid down the reverse proposition " that a debt for the purpose of taxation is situated at the domicile of the creditor, although secured by mortgage upon real estate situated in another state."

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The supreme court of Ohio, in Myers v. Seaberger, 45 Ohio st., 232, held "that a loan of money secured by mortgage on real estate is a credit within the meaning of the statutes of this state, providing for taxation of property, and that where the creditor resides in another state, is not subject to taxation in this, although the securities are in the hands of an agent here who collects interest."

The state of Michigan has a law, however, which provides for the taxation of mortgages upon real property within the state, wherever and by whomever held. The supreme court of the state in Common Council v. Assessors, 91 Michigan, 78 (1892), upheld the law upon the argument that the interest of the mortgagee was a tangible interest within the state, enjoying the protection of the laws of the state. The court attempts to distinguish the decision of the supreme court of the United States in 15 Wallace, on the ground that that case referred to the taxation of credits generally and not to an interest which the state could tax as real property within its jurisdiction.

The law of 1851 has stood upon the statute books for so many years, apparently never having been seriously questioned, that the commissioners have deemed it best to include it within their revision, leaving to the legislature the responsibility of repealing it without re-enactment, if such a course is deemed desirable.]

§ 35. Notice of completion of assessment-roll. The assessors shall complete the assessment-roll on or before the first day of August, and make out one copy thereof, to be left with one of their number, and forthwith cause a notice to be conspicuously posted in three or more public places in the tax district, stating that they have completed the assessment-roll, and that a copy thereof has been left with one of their number at a specified place, where it may be seen and examined by any person until the third Tuesday of August next following, and that on that day they will meet at a time and place specified in the notice to review their assessments. In any city the notice shall conform to the requirements of the law regulating the time, place and manner of revising assessments in such city. During the time specified in the notice the assessor with whom the roll is left shall submit it to the inspection of every person applying for that purpose. [R. S.. pt. I, ch. 13, tit. II, §§ 19-21; 8th, ed., 1098,

time and place specified in such notice, and hear and determine all complaints in relation to such assessments brought before them, and for that purpose they may adjourn from time to time. Such complainants shall file with the assessors a statement, under oath, specifying the respect in which the assessment complained of is incorrect, which verification must be made by the person assessed or whose property is assessed, or by some person authorized to make such statement, and who has knowledge of the facts stated therein. The assessors may administer oaths, take testimony and hear proofs in regard to any such complaint