Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/506

 § 483.] THE LAW OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. [CHAP. VIII essential to the full performance on the part of the corporation of its obligations to the Federal government. 1 § 483. The most numerous and important class of corpo- rations incorporated by Congress are the national state taxa- j^^g. wi^h are instruments designed to aid the national Federal government in the administration of an banks. ° important branch of the public service. Being such means and brought into existence for that purpose, the states can exercise no control over them, nor in any way affect their operations, except in so far as Congress may permit. 2 To what extent national banking interests may be taxed by the states, Congress has provided as follows : — " Nothing herein shall prevent all the shares in any asso- ciation from being included in the valuation of the personal property of the owner or holder of such shares, in assessing taxes imposed by authority of the state within which the asso- ciation is located ; but the legislature of each state may deter- mine and direct the manner and place of taxing all the shares of national banking associations located within the state, sub- ject only to the two restrictions, that the taxation shall not be at a greater rate than is assessed upon other moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of such state, and that the shares of any national banking association owned by non- residents of any state shall be taxed in the city or town where the bank is located, and not elsewhere. Nothing herein shall be construed to exempt the real property of associations from either state, county, or municipal taxes, to the same extent, according to its value, as other real property is taxed." 3 i Thompson v. Pac. R. R., 9 Wall. 579. - Fanner's, etc., National Bank v. Dearing, 91 U. S. 29; Pollard v. State, 65 Ala. 628; City of Carthage v. First National Bank, 71 Mo. 508; Maguire v. Board of Revenue, 71 Ala. 401; Peo. v. Nat. B'k of D. O. Mills & Co., 123 Cal. 53; First Nat. B'k v. San Francisco, 129 Cal. 96. See Linton v. Childs, 109 Ga. 567, where a tax upon bank presidents was held not to apply to presidents of national banks. 486 It is within the constitutional power of Congress to establish a na- tional bank in any state, and provide that its sbares shall be exempt from taxation by other states. Flint v. Board of Aldermen, 99 Mass. 141. See McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 405. 3 U. S. Rev. Stat. § 5219. See Boyer v. Boyer, 113 U. S. 689. The power of a state to tax national banks comes from the act of Con- gress, which must be obeyed in thor- ough good faith. First National Bank