Chap. 188.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Code sections 2218, 2219, 2228, 2230,
2254, 2255, 2256, 2257, 2258 and 2312 as heretofore amended, concerning the
appointment, duties and compensation of examiners of records, and the duties
of the commissioners of the revenue. [S B 279]

Approved March 18, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That Code
sections twenty-two hundred and eighteen, twenty-two hundred and
nineteen, twenty-two hundred and twenty-eight, twenty-two hundred
and thirty, twenty-two hundred and fifty-four, twenty-two hundred
and fifty-five, twenty-two hundred and fifty-six, twenty-two hundred
and fifty-seven, twenty-two hundred and fifty-eight, and twenty-
three hundred and twelve, as heretofore amended, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2218. Examiners of records; how appointed.—On or be-
fore the first day of May, nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, and
every four years thereafter, the State tax commission shall appoint
an examiner of records for each judicial circuit, or for such other
geographical district of this State as the commission may determine,
for a term of four years, who shall be removable by said commission
at pleasure and his successor appointed for the unexpired:term. The
examiners of records in office when this act takes effect shall remain
in office until May first, nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, unless
sooner removed by the State tax commission. The said commission
shall have power at its pleasure to change the territorial district in
which each of the several examiners of records shall have jurisdiction.

Section 2219. Examiner to qualify and give bond.—The examiner
of records, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, shall
qualify before some court of record in his circuit, or district, or to the
judge thereof in vacation, and enter into and acknowledge a bond in
the penalty of five thousand dollars, conditioned for the faithful dis-
charge of his duties, and for the making good to the Commonwealth
of all over-payments of commissions to said examiner, as provided
in section twenty-two hundred and twenty-four, pay able to the Com-
monwealth of Virginia, the surety to be approved by the court or
judge taking such bond.
Section 2228. Further duties of examiners of record.—In addi-
tion to other duties imposed by law on the examiners of records, it
shall be their duty:

(a) To review the reports of purchases made by merchants and
to report for assessment additional license tax when their investiga-
tions disclose that such merchants have reported less than the law
requires.

(b) To review the lists of all persons licensed by the commissioner
of the revenue and to report to the commissioner of the revenue for
assessment any person who for sixty days has without a license, con-
ducted any business for which a license is required.

(c) To review in regard to intangible personal property, money
and income, of such, interrogatories of taxpayers as may be referred
to him by the State tax commission, and to report to the said commis-
sion, for assessment, such additional intangible personal property,
money and income when their review or investigation, discloses that
such property, money or income has not been reported for taxation
or has been reported for taxation at less than the law requires.

(d) To call upon every taxpayer who may not have properly re-
turned to the commissioner of the revenue all his intangible personal
property, money and income, and to require such taxpayer to make a
return of the same, and to this end, the examiner of records may sum-
mon before him, by registered letter or otherwise, the taxpayer or
any other person to appear before him at some place in the county
or city in which such taxpayer or other person resides, to answer,
under oath, questions touching the ownership and value of any intan-
gible personal property, money and income of any and all taxpayers.

(e) To call upon and require taxpayers or their agents or any
person, firm.or officer of a company or corporation to furnish informa-
tion relating to intangible personal property, money or income, and
license tax of any and all taxpayers; and to require taxpayers to fur-
nish to them access to their books of account or other papers and rec-
ords for the purpose of verifying the tax returns of such taxpayer and
procuring the information necessary to make a complete report for
assessment of any taxpayer’s intangible personal property, money and
income and merchants license tax.

(f) To perform such duties in connection with the ascertainment
and report of the value of intangible personal property, money and
income and of the correctness of the reports of purchases by mer-
chants, and to make such investigation and report of persons doing
business without a license or with inadequate license as may be re-
quired of them by the State tax commission.

(g) To make such reports to the State tax commission aS may
be required by law, or as the rules and regulations adopted by the said
commission may require.

Section 2230. Compensation of examiners of records upon values
reported and assessed as result of investigation of returns of intan-
gible property and income.—The examiner of records shall receive
commissions upon the values reported and assessed as result of his
investigation and examination as to returns of intangible personal
property and income at the rate of one-tenth of one per centum on the
first one million dollars of aggregate amount of property and income
so reported and assessed, and one-twenty-fifth of one per centum on
all in excess of one million dollars; upon valuations of money so re-
ported and assessed, he shall receive commissions at the rate of one-
fiftieth of one per centum, and upon the increase of license tax made
upon reports by the examiner and upon licenses assessed upon such
reports against persons doing business without a license, he shall re-
ceive commissions at the rate of fifteen per centum of the whole
amount of such license tax, penalty and interest so assessed upon his
reports, to be paid as commissions are paid to the commissioners of
the revenue for assessment of State taxes, and the examiner shall also
receive all such additional amounts and allowance for expenses as
may be paid to him by the State tax commission, payable out of. the
fund at the disposal of the State tax commission. But he shall refund
and pay into the treasury the compensation paid him on all taxable
values and all license taxes reported by him that shall be relieved of
taxes erroneously assessed thereon, and he shall be liable therefor
under the bond required by law to be executed.

_ Section 2254. Auditor to furnish printed forms to commissioners
of the revenue; commissioner to receive returns.—It shall be the duty
of the auditor of public accounts to prepare and forward to the com-
missioners of the revenue the requisite number of printed forms of
land and personal property books, or other tax books required by law;
also, the blank forms of interrogatories upon which taxpayers are re-
quired to make returns for the assessment of capitations, tangible
personal property, money and income, etcetera, except that where
such blanks and forms are required to be prescribed by the State
tax commission, such blanks and forms shall be furnished commission-
ers of the revenue by the tax commission. Upon the blank forms of
interrogatories there shall be a space for affirmation of the taxpayer
that the answers to interrogatories are correct, and the commissioner
of the revenue or his deputy shall sign a certificate upon the inter-
rogatories stating that the affirmation required by this section was
made by the taxpayer. When the interrogatories are delivered to
the commissioner of the revenue, it shall be the duty of the commis-
sioner to call in person or by deputy upon each taxpayer in his dis-
trict to view and list at its fair market value the property to be as-
sessed and to procure full and complete answers to the interrogatories
as required by this section, except that in cities of twenty-five thou-
sand population or more, and in counties containing a population of
more than three hundred per square mile the taxpayer shall seek the
othce of the commissioner or any such branch office or offices as the
commissioner may establish. In all such cases the commissioner
shall advertise in some newspaper of general circulation in such city
or county for at least thirty days prior to the time fixed by law for
filing returns which advertisement shall state the time when returrs
of taxpayers must be filed, the Iccation of the commissioner’s c ffice,
the location of such branch offices as he may establish, and the hcurs
of the day, not less than eight hours each day, during which such office
or offices shall be open for business. In making the returns required
by the interrogatories the taxpayer shall list, at fair market value,
all property, money and income, opposite appropriate items, writing
the word ‘‘none’’ opposite those items of property, money or income
which he does not own, but the failure of the commissioner to call
upon each taxpayer in his district shall not excuse the taxpayer from
making a return to the commissioner on or before the first day of June
of each year, showing in detail the fair market value of all his tangible
and intangible personal property, money and income.

Section 2255. Interrogatories to be returned by each commis-
sioner of the revenue to the examiner of records.—It shall be the duty
of each commissioner of the revenue on July first of each year to sub-
mit to the examiner of records of his circuit all interrogatories of tax-
payers received by him. It shall be the duty of the examiner of
records thereupon to examine and review such interrogatories with
particular reference to the returns of intangible personal property,
money and income, and it shall be the further duty of the examiner
of records to call upon every taxpayer who may not have properly
returned to the commissioner all of his intangible personal property,
money and income, and to require such taxpayer to make return of
the same, and for this end the examiner of records may summon
before him, by registered letter or otherwise, the taxpayer or any
other person to appear before him at some place in the county or
city in which such taxpayer or other person resides, to answer, under
oath, questions touching the ownership and value of all intangible
personal property, money and income of any and all taxpayers.

Section 2256. Examiner of records to make report showing re-
sults of his investigations.—On or before the first day of October of
each year the examiner of records shall return to the commissioner
of the revenue all interrogatories retained by him for investigation,
and also all returns made to him by persons who failed to file a return
with the commissioner of the revenue on or before July first, together
with a report upon forms to be prescribed by the auditor of public
accounts, showing separately the amount of increase in value of in-
tangible personal property, money and income to be assessed against
taxpayers who filed answers to interrogatories with the commissioner
of the revenue on or before July first and the amount of the value of
intangible personal property, money and income to be assessed against
taxpayers who did not file answers to interrogatories with the com-
missioner of the revenue on or before July first.

Section 2257. Commissioner to assess taxes and penalties upon
examiner’s report.—It shall be the duty of the commissioner of the
revenue to assess taxes at the rate prescribed by law and the penalties
provided by law upon the values ascertained by the examiner of rec-
ords and reported to the commissioner of the revenue.

Section 2258. The commissioner or commissioners of the revenue
in a county shall file interrogatories, except the interrogatories upon
which are based assessments of intangible personal property, money
and income, with the clerk of the circuit court of the county; in a
city, with the clerk of the corporation or hustings court of the city,
but if the city have no such court, then such interrogatories and an-
swers shall be filed with the clerk of the circuit court, which inter-
rogatories and answers shall be carefully preserved on a permanent
file by the clerk, and it shall be a misdemeanor to abstract, mutilate
or destroy such interrogatories.

All interrogatories and answers thereto upon which are based
assessments of intangible personal property, money and income, shall
be transmitted by the commissioner of the revenue to the State tax
commission at its office in Richmond, after the commissioner of the
revenue shall have extended upon his book the assessments thereon
and shall have made copies of such interrogatories and answers there-
to, which copies shall be filed with the clerk of the court as herein-
before provided for other interrogatories.

Section 2312. Commissioner to assess valuation of property, in-
come and money.—The commissioner, or any one of his duly quali-
fied deputies, shall, upon his own view, or upon such information as
he may obtain or possess, assess the fair market value of all tangible
personal property, money and income shown by the answers to the
interrogatories to be owned by the taxpayer, and in the event the tax-
payer has not answered the interrogatory, the commissioner or his
duly qualified deputy, shall, from the best information he can obtain,
enter upon the interrogatory the fair market value of the tangible
personal property of the taxpayer, and he shall assess the same as if
it had been reported to him.

After the time fixed by law for delivering the books containing as-
sessments based upon returns of intangible personal property, money
and income, the commissioner shall not receive such returns unless
the time for filing the same be extended by the State tax commission,
but at any time after the time fixed by law for filing returns he shall
furnish access to the records and files to the examiner of records, as
provided by law.

If it shall appear to the State tax commission that any examiner
of records is not performing with reasonable dispatch the duties im-
posed upon him by law, the commission may instruct the commis-
sioner of the revenue to make from the best information he can ob-
tain assessments against such taxpayers who have failed or refused
to make answer to interrogatories respecting their intangible persona!
property, money and income.

2. The assessment and collection of the current revenues of the
State being affected, an emergency is declared to exist and this act
shall be in force from its passage.