TAX EXEMPTION.
Mr. Schloss' bill [H. R. 290] to repeal Section 105 of an act concerning taxation, being Section 373 of the Revised Statutes of 1881, was read the third time.
Mr. WILSON, of Marion, was in favor of the passage of this bill. He believed as the statutes now stand, the men who form these Associations page: 282[View Page 282] to pay double and sometimes treble tax.
Mr. McMULLEN was from a County in which several such Associations exist. They are composed entirely of poor, laboring men, who can pay only up one or two dollars per week. By joining these Associations and paying a small assessment into the general fund of the Association, a member may draw from the fund a stipulated Amount. With this amount he can purchase a Sot or build for himself a small house, and this is the object of these Associations. This bill is simply to relieve the shares held in such Associations from tax.
Mr. STERRITT stated that several of the Associations exist in the County which he represents. He thought it was unjust to tax the men upon the shares held in such Association and at the same time tax him upon the property that he buys with the money secured on these shares.
Mr. MONTGOMERY said these Building Associations loan all their money each Monday and take a mortgage upon the property purchased by the member securing the loan. He did not think it just to tax he property and at the same time tax the share-holder in such Association. It was simply to avoid double and triple taxation, and he, therefore, thought the bill should pass.
Mr. SHOCKNEY said; This bill ought to become a law. It is directly in the interest of a large number of laboring people who are striving to obtain a home of their own by depositing small pittances of their meager earnings with these Association's, and investing the same in small houses. Under the law as it now is these poor people are compelled to pay taxes on shares of stock they hare surrendered as well as on the property they buy, while the Associations, also, are compelled to pay taxes on the mortgages lead to secure the payment of dues-making treble taxation upon a needy class of industrious, but poor, laboring people.
The bill was rejected by yeas, 40; nays, 45.
