A tobacconist's license is not required of a regularly licensed hotel. (8 64, subd. 16.) Gas.-Hotel keepers making their own gas are taxable for it, the same as if bought. The amount used, if not measured, is to be estimated. (§ 75.) See GAs, supra. Restaurants.-Hotels conducted upon the "European plan," or where guests are provided with food, at their order, in a public room or restaurant, do not require, we apprehend, a separate license as an eating house, even though persons other than lodgers are accustomed to eat there. Steamers and vessels.-Steamers and vessels upon United States waters, carrying passengers and providing food or lodging for them, must take out a license of the fifth class, at $25. (8 64, subd. 11.) The provisions as to additional licenses required of hotels, as above, apply equally to steamers and vessels having hotel licenses. ICE. See DEALERS, supra. PEDDLERS, infra. INDIA RUBBER AND INDIA-RUBBER CLOTH. On all manufactures of India rubber, not otherwise provided for, a duty of three per cent, ad valorem, is imposed. (875.) The tax upon India-rubber cloth, or cloths prepared by a covering of India rubber and the like, is upon the increased value of the finished article. (Com'r Boutw., Decis. No. 5.) See CLOTH, supra. MANUFACTURES IN GENERAL, article ii., § 2, infra. INSURANCE AGENTS. [License fee, $10.] Defined. Any person acting as agent of any fire, marine, life, mutual, or other insurance company, or companies, is regarded as an insurance agent. No license, however, is required of an insurance agent or broker whose receipts, as such agent, are less than six hundred dollars in any one year. (§ 64, subd. 38, as amended, p. 252) INSURANCE COMPANIES. [Duty on declared dividends, three per cent; on receipts for premiums and assessments, one per cent.] 1. THE DUTY. Insurance companies are subject to two sorts of taxation. An indirect tax of three per cent is imposed upon dividends declared to stockholders and sums added to the surplus funds of the company. This tax on dividends the company may deduct from their payments of dividends to stockholders; and as this tax is more properly a burden on the stockholder, it is treated of separately, under the head of DIVIDENDS, supra. In regard to the payment of this duty upon dividends, the company must, within thirty days after the time fixed for the payment of dividends, or when declared due, and as often as every six months,* make a return, duly verified by the president or some proper officer, to the commissioner, at Washington, containing the amount of duties which have or should accrue on the dividends declared due, and which have been withheld from payments on account thereof. The duties are to be paid at the time of making the return; and, in default thereof, the company is liable to a penalty of $500. Besides the tax on declared dividends, which the company may assume or not, a direct tax of one per cent is imposed upon the annual gross receipts for premiums and assessments. Inland and marine insurance companies (and any individual or association engaged in the business of insurance from loss or damage by fire, or the perils of the sea) are required to pay quarterly, from October 1, 1862, a duty of one per cent upon the gross receipts for premiums and assessments by the company during the quarter then preceding. (§ 84.) But life-insurance companies are not required to pay this duty (§ 85). The dividends of life insurance companies are taxable. This tax is not deemed due until the dividends are payable. Besides the regular divisions of profits to stockholders, all premiums or deposits returned must be considered as dividends to policyholders, from which three per cent must be withheld. (Com'r Boutw., Decis. No. 65.) * See DIVIDENDS (INSURANCE COMPANIES). Foreign insurance companies, having an office or doing business in the United States, must pay the same duties as domestic companies. (84.) By the amendments of March 3 (see Appendix, p. 272) the gross receipts for tickets or contracts of insurance against fatal or non-fatal injury to persons traveling by land or water are subject to one per cent duty on their amount. Unlike policies of insurance, these contracts are exempt from stamp duty. The gross receipts for premiums and assessments are understood to mean all cash receipts, whether under the name of premiums, perpetual deposits for insurance, or in payment of the whole or part of premium notes. Whenever any portion of the premium is refunded to the holder of an open policy, because the policy has not been used in full, the amount so refunded may be deducted from the premiums received during the quarter, and the tax paid upon the remainder. But this does not apply to money so refunded on which the tax has not been previously paid. (Com'r Boutw., Decis. Nos. 29, 65.) Amounts paid for reinsurance may be deducted from the returns of premiums received. (Id., N. Y. Trans., Feb. 10, '63.) 2. THE RETURN AND PAYMENT OF THE DUTY. The duty on profits is to be paid quarterly, and within thirty days after the expiration of each quarter-that is, not later than Jan. 31, April 30, July 31, and Oct. 31, of each year. The company (except life-insurance companies) and the agents of foreign companies are required to render to the commissioner a true and faithful account of the insurance made, received, or continued, or indorsed upon any open policy, by them, during the preceding quarter, setting forth 1. The amount insured; 2. The gross amount received; and 3. The duties accruing thereon. To this must be annexed an affidavit, by one of the officers of the company, or by the agent in the case of foreign companies, that the statements in the account are just and true. (8 85.) The duties are to be paid quarterly, to the commissioner, at the time of rendering the quarterly account. The amount should be deposited with the nearest United States assistant treasurer, or designated depositary, and his original certificate therefor sent, with the return, to the commissioner of internal revenue. If more convenient, payment may be made by draft or in treasury notes. (Com'r Boutw., Decis. No. 65.) Under the English statute it is beld, that an agent of an insurance company, who has received premiums and duties for the office to whom he has given security, is liable for the duties. (Rex v. Wrangham, 1 Cromp. & Jer. 408.) Penalties. For neglect to make the return, properly verified, the company is liable to a penalty of $500 (§ 82). And in case of neglect or refusal to render the return, or pay the duties, for thirty days after such return and duties are due, the assessor is to proceed in the manner prescribed in the general provisions. (§ 83. See § 11.) For default in the delivery of the quarterly account duly verified, or in the payment of the duties due by such account, the company or agent forfeits, in addition to the duty, $5,000. (§ 85.) IRON. A duty of three per cent, ad valorem, is imposed on all manufactures of iron "not otherwise provided for." (8 75, last clause.) The manufactures of iron "otherwise provided for" are as follows, with the rates of duty annexed. The italics indicate the subjects added by the amendments adopted March 3, 1863: All iron advanced beyond slabs, blooms or loops, and not advanced beyond bars or rods..... Band, hoop and sheet iron not thinner than No. 18, wire gauge Per ton.* $1.50 1.50 Band, hoop and sheet iron thinner than No. 18.... 2.00 not otherwise provided for...... 1.50 Cast iron, used for bridges, buildings or other perma Plate iron not less than of an inch in thickness. 1.50 Plate iron less than of an inch in thickness..... 2.00 Cut nails and spikes...... 2.00 Railroad chairs (of wrought iron).... 2.00 *By regulation of the treasury department, a ton is 2,240 pounds, unless the contrary is specified in the act. Per ton. Railroad iron..... Rivets, over inch in diameter... Steel in ingots, bars, sheets, or wire, not less than valued above seven and not above eleven cents. valued above eleven cents per pound..... Stoves and hollowware, per ton of 2,000 pounds... $1.50 .75 2.00 4.00 8.00 10.00 1.50 It is specially provided that bars, rods, bands, hoops, sheets, plates, nails, spikes, rivets, nuts, railroad chairs, bolts and horse shoes, manufactured from iron upon which the duty of $1.50 per ton has been paid, shall be subject only to a duty of fifty cents per ton in addition. Bar iron, used for stoves and hollowware, or for bridges, buildings, or other permanent structures, is chargeable with no additional duty beyond the specific duty of $1.50 per ton. Car wheels. When the duty has been paid on car wheels as a separate manufacture, this duty may be deducted from the amount of duty assessed upon railroad cars. (§ 75, p. 263.) Pig iron.-By the last clause of section 75, pig iron and iron not advanced beyond slabs, blooms or loops, are exempted. Pipe.-Gas and water pipes and lamp posts, of iron, are taxable at $1.50 per ton of 2,000 pounds, by a decision of the commissioner. See p. 313, infra. Steel wire, manufactured exclusively for hoop skirts, is exempted by the amendatory act of March 3, 1863. (§ 29, p. 263.) Manufactures of iron not above specified are subject to a three per cent ad valorem duty. But the articles must be "manufactures" having a known commercial value, and known to the trade as such. Thus, iron castings made upon the spe cial order of a machinist, but not known to the trade as manufactures, are exempt. (Com'r Boutw., Decis. No. 8.) See p. 314. One who manufactures castings, and uses them himself in the manufacture of other articles, pays a tax only on the last. The right to levy the tax depends upon the fact of sale, or removal for sale or consumption. See MANUFACTURES IN GENERAL, infra. Iron railings, composed of wrought-iron bars and cast-iron ornaments, are regarded as manufactures, and, as such, subject to a tax of three per cent, ad valorem. (Com'r Boutw., N. Y. Post, Feb. 9, '63.) |