Chap. 159.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 22 and 23 of an
act entitled an act for the assessment of taxes on persons, property,
income, licenses, &c., and imposing taxes thereon for the support of
the government and free schools, and to pay the interest on the pub-
lic debt, approved March 27, 1876.

Approved March 20, 1877.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That sections
twenty-two and twenty-three of an act entitled an act for
the assessment of taxes on persons, property, income, licenses,
and so forth, and imposing taxes thoreon for the support of
the government and free schools, and to pay the interest on
the public debt, approved March twenty-seventh, eighteen
hundred and seventy-six, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

§ 22. Every express and transportation company, steam-
ship and steamboat and stage company, and persons who
may run steamships, steamboats, stages, wagons, and other
vehicles for the transportation of passengers and freights, by
land or water, and all ferries, ferry companies, and bridge
companies, s3all make return to the auditor of public ac-
counts, on or before the first day of June of each year, of
the gross earnings of such company and persons aforesaid,
on account of any transaction, profits, or charges made, or
on account of any business conducted and completed, or
transportation, beginning and ending, exclusively, within the
state of Virginia, within the twelve months next preceding
the first day of February of each year; and on the first day
of June of each year, shall likewise return the value of all
real and personal property owned by said company and per-
sons, and located within said state, as of the first day of
February of each year. The report of such company sha!
be verified by the oaths of the agents and chief officers
thereof, at its principal office in this state; and the report of
such persons as aforesaid, shall be verified by their oaths.
The report shall show the gross earnings from such transac-
tion, profits, charges, business, and transportation as afore-
said. Every such company and person shall be the collec-
tor for the state of the taxes which may be impused thereon,
at the time fixed for making said report, and pay the same
into the treasury. Fora failure to make such report or pay
such tax, a penalty of not less than one thousand nor more
than five thousand dollars shall be imposed upon the com-
pany and persons aforesaid so failing; and the tax sball be
immediately assessed upon the gross earnings aforesaid, under
the direction of the auditor of public accounts, by any per-
son appointed by him for that purpose, upon the best infor-
mation which such person can obtain; and to that end, may
exercise all the powers of a commissioner of the revenue.
For the payment of the tax the stockholders and members
of such companies shall be personally liable, and judgment
may be rendered against them, or any of them, personally,
in the circuit court of tbe city of Richmond, in the mode
prescribed by law. Such company, and its officers and agents,
are hereby prohibited from transporting any goods, wares,
or other articles of their own, or in which they have an in-
terest, for the purpose of making sale of the same by said
company ; and they are prohibited from doing any business
appertaining to the business of a broker or merchant, unless
dicensed as a broker or merchant. Such principal officer
shall require from the several agents employed by such com-
pany, a report of their transactions, on oath; which report,
so sworn to, shall accompany the report of the chief officer
to the auditor of public accounts. All 1eports, hereafter,
shall be made under the provisions and in pursuance of this
act. Such company, its officers and agents, doing business
as broker or merchant without a license, and for any viola-
tion of this act, shall forfeit not less than two hundred nor
more than two thousand dollars for each effence; and if the
-officers and agents of such company refuse to show what, if
any goods have been transported over any road by any such
company, or by any officer or agent thereof, such company
shall be held to have engaged in the business of a broker or
merchant, and the penalty hereby imposed shall be exacted.
§ 23. On real and personal property located within this
state, of every express and transportation, and steamship,
and steamboat, and stage and sleeping-car company, and
persons who may run steamships, and steamboats, and
sleeeping-cars, and stages, wagons, and other vehicles for
transportation of passengers and freights, by land or water,
and all ferries, ferry companies and bridge companies, there
shall be a tax of fifty cents on every hundred dollars of the
value thereof, the proceeds of one-fifth of which shall be ap-
plied to the support of the public free schools of this state;
and ‘on the gross earnings of said companies, derived from
the sources mentioned in the preceding section, the tax shall
be the one-balf of one per centum on the amount thereof.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.