Chap. 69.—An ACT to create a State Advisory Board on Taxation and county
and city boards of review of assessments; to define the powers and duties
of such boards; to fix the compensation of their members and to appro-
priate money to carry out the provisions of this act; to provide for the
review of assessments on intangible personal property, income and money,
by certain officials and fixing their compensation therefor and to provide
penalties for the violation of this act. (S. B. 63)

Approved February 16, 1915.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

1. That there is hereby created a board, which shall be known as
the State advisory board on taxation, which shall consist of the governor,
the auditor of public accounts, and the chairman of the State corpora-
tion commission, who shall be ex-officio members thereof, and shall receive
no compensation for serving thereon.

OFFICERS.

2. The governor shall be the chairman, and the auditor of public
accounts shall be the secretary of the said board, which may select such
assistants as it may deem necessary, whose compensation shall be fixed
by the board and paid out of the funds appropriated for the contingent
expenses thereof.

GENERAL DUTIES.

3. It shall be the duty of the State advisory board on taxation

(a) To collect, digest and preserve information relating to the as-
sessment and collection of taxes in this State and to ascertain the best
methods of effecting equitable assessments, and of avoiding duplication
of taxation of the same property; and to recommend to the general as-
sembly such measures as will promote uniformity of assessments, just
rates and harmony and co-operation among all officials connected with the
revenue system of the State.

‘(b) To exercise general advisory powers over the local boards of re-
view, and over the assessors and commissioners of the revenue. It shall
be the duty of the said board to furnish the said local boards of review,
the assessors and commissioners of the revenue such information and data
relating to the assessments and value of property for the purpose of uni-
form valuation as will promote fairness and equality of assessment, and
to advise all such county officials in the performance of their duties ; to in-
vestigate at any time the assessment and collection of taxes in any county
or city, and when any assessment is found to be unjust or unreasonable
to recommend the correction of the same in the manner provided by law.
Nothing in this act shall in any way abridge or change the duties and
powers now conferred by law upon the auditor of public accounts relating
to the assessment and collection of the revenue of the State, and he
shall continue to exercise all the powers now conferred upon him by law
relative to the assessment and collection of the State revenue; and his
instructions to officers, so far as the same are authorized by law, shall
be carried out subject to the penalty prescribed by law for failure to carry
out his instructions.
4. In all matters within its jurisdiction the said State advisory
board shall have authority to administer oaths, to award, issue and have
served, executed and returned any writ, notice, process, order or order
of publication which may by law be awarded, issued, served or returned by
or to any court of law or equity in this Commonwealth for the purpose
of compelling the attendance of witnesses and the enforcement and execu-
tion of its findings, orders and judgments. All writs, processes and
orders of the board shall run in the name of the Commonwealth, shall
be signed by the chairman of the board, and may be executed and re-
turned in like manner as the processes, writs, notices or orders of the
courts of record of this Commonwealth, and so served shall have the
same legal office.

5. The sum of five thousand dollars annually or so much thereof
as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of
any funds in the treasury not otherwise appropriated to carry out the
purpose of this act to be paid by the auditor of public accounts upon the
warrant of the chairman, countersigned by the secretary of the board.

LOCAL BOARDS OF REVIEW.

6. On or before the first day of June, nineteen hundred and fifteen,
and annually thereafter on or before the first day of February, the judge
of the circuit court of each county and the judge of the corporation
or hustings court of each city shall, either in term time or vacation, ap-
point three qualified voters residing in such county or city, to compose
a local board of review of assessments for said county or city; and be-
fore entering on the duties of their office such appointees shall take
the oath of office prescribed by law for county and city officers. Pro-
vided that not more than two members of said local board of review
shall be members of the same political party, excepting in those counties
and cities where at the presidential election last preceding the appoint-
ment of such board, the majority party in the State cast more than
sixty (60 per cent) of the total vote in such county or city. And if
it shall appear that any person thus appointed cannot or for any reason
will not, perform the duties required of him by law, the said judge
shall appoint another in his place. The said local board of review shall
organize by electing one of their number as chairman. The clerk of the
circuit, corporation or hustings court shall be ex-officio clerk of said
board of review, and shall attend all meetings and keep a record of the
proceedings thereof in a separate book to be provided for that purpose,
which shall be preserved and kept on file in his office as clerk of such
court. The said local board of review shall hold sessions at such dates
and for such period as they may deem necessary; provided, that its ses-
sions shall not be for less than two nor more than thirty days in any
one year, and reasonable notice of the date of its sessions shall be pub-
lished in advance.

The compensation of each member of the local board of review of
assessments shall be four dollars per day and the clerk two dollars per
day for each day that he shall be necessarily employed, to be paid one-
half by the Commonwealth and one-half by the county or city where he
serves. The accounts for such compensation shall be made out and
verified by affidavit of the member before the clerk of the circuit, cor-
poration or hustings court in which shall be stated that the time for
which said per diem is claimed was necessarily employed; and when
said accounts shall be so made out and verified they shall be paid out of
the State and county or city treasury, in equal proportions, out of any
money in such treasury not otherwise appropriated.

%. Duties of board of review of assessments.—Each local board of re-
view of assessments shall have power, and it shall be its duty:

(1) To direct the commissioner of the revenue to enter in the as-
sessment roll any porperty, whether real or personal, which is found to
have been omitted.

(2) To direct the commissioner of the revenue to correct any en-
tries found to be erroneous, either as to over or under valuation, and to
cancel duplicate assessments.

(3) To hear and determine the complaints of all taxpayers, member
or members of a board of supervisors, board of supervisors, member or
members of a city or town council or city or town council or any other
governing board, or the Commonwealth’s attorney, who appear and claim
to be aggrieved by unequal or unjust valuation or assessment, and direct
such corrections on the assessment books with reference thereto as may
be determined. In all such hearings the officers who made the assess-
ments shall if possible be present and testify; provided, that no taxpayer
who has failed, refused or neglected, without cause shown, to file with
the commissioner of revenue a sworn statement of his property shall
be entitled to be heard, nor shall such valuation or assessment be reduced.

(314) Said board shall, upon its own motion and may upon the
motion of the board of supervisors of any county or the council or any
other governing board of any city or town or of any five citizens thereof,
when it deems an assessment erroneous, change such assessment by rais-
ing or lowering the same, and thereupon give notice to any person whose
assessment is raised to show cause against such change, unless such
person has already been fully heard.

(4) To keep minutes of its meetings, and to enter therein all orders
made, and to transmit promptly a copy of such orders to the commis-
sioner of the revenue, who shall make the corrections on the assessment
rolls as directed thereby ; provided, however, that no order made by said
board shall prevent the taxpayer, or member or members of a board of
Supervisors, board of supervisors, member or members of a city or town
council, city or town council or any other governing board or the Com-
monwealth’s attorney from applying to the proper court for correction
of any erroneous assessment in the manner provided by law.

(5) In the year of a quinquennial assessment of real estate and in
the year immediately following such assessment, such board of review
shall devote especial attention to grievances and complaints with regard
to the assessment of real estate and direct such corrections on the land-
books with reference thereto as may be determined; in all other years
it shall make no changes in real estate assessments, save and except of
lands, lots or improvements not previously assessed.

(6) The said local board of review on behalf of the Commonwealth,
may apply to the circuit court of the county, or to the corporation or
hustings court of the city, for the correction of any erroneous assessment
of lands or other property either as to over or under valuation in the
same manner as is provided by law for the correction of any such assess-
ment by any person who is aggrieved thereby. For all such cases the
attorney for the Commonwealth shall represent the said local board.

(7) To review reports of purchases by merchants and the annual
returns of intangible personal property, income and money of all tax-
payers in their respective counties and cities as made, or required to be
made, to the commissioners of the revenue, before the merchants’ license
tax is assessed and before the taxes on intangible personal property, in-
come and money, are entered or extended on the books of the said com-
missioners of the revenue; and to this end they shall direct the examiner
of records of the judicial circuit in which any such county or city is
located, and it shall be the duty of said examiners in addition to the duties
now imposed upon them by law, to assist the said local boards of review
in the examination of reports of purchases by merchants and the returns
of taxpayers of all such intangible personal property, incomes and money.
It shall be the duty of the said examiners of record, to examine the re-
turns aforesaid and the records, both State and Federal, with a view to
ascertaining and reporting for taxation the values to be extended by
said commissioners of the revenue on all intangible personal property,
incomes and money liable to taxation under the laws of this State. As
soon as such examinations and valuations are made by the examiner of
record, he shall make report thereof to the said local board of review,
which shall review. the same as herein provided, and thereupon make
report thereof to the commissioners of the revenue of such county or
city on such forms as shall be prescribed by the auditor of public ac-
counts; and thereupon such commissioners of the revenue shall assess
the merchants’ license taxes and shall enter and extend upon their per-
sonal property books the names of the persons, firms and corporations
chargeable with said taxes on intangible personal property, income and
money at the rate provided by law on such intangible property, income
or money on the valuation as ascertained, and shall assess the taxes
thereon as if such intangible property, income or money, had been listed
by the individual person, firm or corporation. The local board of review
shall have authority to summon the taxpayers or their agents, or any
other person having information on the subject before them, and require
them to answer under oath all questions touching purchases by mer-
chants and touching the ownership of intangible property, income or
money, held by such person, firm or corporation and the valuation of
said property, and upon the request of the examiner of records, the said
local board of review, or its chairman, shall summon any such taxpayer
before it to answer on oath such question as may be propounded by the
said board or examiner of records; and should the person, firm or cor-
poration, agents or witnesses, refuse to furnish the information re-
quested, such person, firm, corporation, agents or witnesses shall be
liable to a fine of not less than ten and not more than one hundred dollars,
to be recovered as other fines due the Commonwealth, and each day’s
refusal or failure to furnish such information shall constitute a separate
offense.
The answers required under oath of the person, firm, corporation,
agents or witnesses, shall not be disclosed unless called for by a court
of record or by said State advisory board, or any local board of review.

If any person, firm, corporation or agent may be aggrieved by such
issessment or valuation, the same shall be corrected under the provisions
of section five hundred and sixty-seven and five hundred and sixty-eight
of the Code of Virginia, as amended, provided full disclosures have been
made and it is apparent that the erroneous assessment was not caused
by the failure or refusal of the applicant or their agents to furnish
information when requested, to the local boards of review, as required
by this act.

The examiner of records shall upon the valuations added as a result
of his investigations, and examinations, of the returns of intangible
personal property and incomes of taxpayers, not returned by them in
counties and towns receive commissions at the rate of one-tenth of one
per cent on the first million dollars of such additions, and upon addi-
tional valuations of intangible personal property and incomes in excess
of one million dollars he shall receive commission at the rate of one-
thirtieth of one per cent; and upon the valuations added to the returns
of intangible personal property and incomes of taxpayers, not returned
by them, in cities he shall receive commissions at the rate of one-tenth
of one per cent, on the first five hundred thousand dollars of such addi-
tions, and upon additional valuations in excess of five hundred thousand
dollars he shall receive commissions at the rate of one-thirtieth of one
per cent. Upon valuations of money added as the result of his investi-
gations and examinations, the examiner of records shall receive commis-
sions at the rate of one-thirtieth of one per cent on such valuation; and
upon additions to purchases of merchants, not returned by them, he shall
receive commissions at the rate of five per cent on the increase in the
license taxes paid by the merchants resulting from the increase in pur-
chases; provided, however, the examiner of records shall refund and pay
into the treasury the compensation paid him on all property and taxable
values hereafter reported by him that shall be relieved of taxes erron-
eously assessed thereon, and the compensation paid them on all property
and taxable values upon which the taxes hereafter assessed under this
section are not collected and are returned delinquent and the costs, if
any, incurred by any taxpayer in correcting any erroneous assessment
caused by the action of such examiner of records, and shall be liable
therefor under the bond required by law to be executed.

The State advisory board is hereby charged with the duty of seeing
that the local boards of review, the commissioners of the revenue, as-
sessors and examiners of records, shall faithfully perform their duties
under this act.

The several commissioners of the revenue, on or before the first day
of June, nineteen hundred and fifteen and annually thereafter, on or
before the first day of April, shall cause the personal interrogatories of
each taxpayer covering intangible personal property, income or money
im their respective districts, to be placed in the hands of the examiners
ot records of such districts, the examiners of records shall return the
Same together with their report to the local board of review and: the
commissioners of the revenue within sixty days thereafter, unless allowed
further time by the auditor of public accounts, the State advisory board
on taxation shall, on the first day of the meeting of each session of the
general assembly file with the- senate and house of delegates a special
report, showing such defects in the tax system of the State as need
correction and recommend specific remedies therefor.

All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.