Chap. 499.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 23 of an act entitled an
act to provide for the assessment of taxes on persons, property and incomes,
and on licenses to transact business and imposing taxes thereon for the
support of the government and public free schools, and to pay the interest
on the public debt, and prescribing the mode of obtaining licenses to sell
wine, ardent spirits, malt liquors, or any mixture thereof, in cases where a
court certificate is required, approved March 6, 1890, and also to amend
and re-enact section 25 of the same act as amended by an act approved
March 3, 1898, so as to impose an additional tax upon telegraph and ex-
press companies.

Approved February 24, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-three of an act entitled “an act to provide for the assessment
of taxes on persons, prpperty, and incomes, and on licenses to transact
business, and imposing taxes thereon for the support of the government
and public free schools, and to pay the interest on the public debt, and
prescribing the mode of obtaining licenses to sell wine, ardent spirits,
malt liquors, or any mixture thereof, in cases where a court certificate
is required,” approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety, and
section twenty-five of the same act, as amended by an act entitled “a
act to amend and re-enact section twenty-five of an act entitled an act
to provide for the assessment of taxes on persons, property, and incomes,
and on licenses to transact business, and imposing taxes thereon for the
support of the government and public free schools, and to pay the in-
terest on the public debt, and prescribing the mode of obtaining licenses
to sell wine, ardent spirits, malt liquors, or any mixture thereof, in
cases where a court certificate is required,” approved March sixth, eigh-
teen hundred and ninety, approved March third, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 23. Each and every express company doing business in this state,
in addition to the property tax otherwise imposed, shall, for the privilege
of doing business between points both of which are within this state,
pay a license tax as follows—to wit: Each and every express company
operating a mileage in this state not exceeding two hundred miles, shall
pay a license tax of two hundred and fifty dollars; each and every express
company operating a mileage in this state of over two hundred miles and
not exceeding one thousand miles, shall pay a license tax of twelve hun-
dred and fifty dollars; each and every express company operating a
mileage in this state of over one thousand miles and not exceeding fifteen
hundred miles, shall pay a license tax of two thousand dollars; and each
and every express company operating a mileage in this state of over fifteen
hundred miles, shall pay a license tax of twenty-seven hundred and fifty
dollars; and no express company which shall have paid the privilege tax
hereby imposed shall be required to pay an additional tax to the state,
except the property tax hereinbefore referred to. Each and every express
company doing business in this state shall, in addition to the report
required by section twenty-one of this act, report annually under oath
to the auditor of public accounts on or before the first day of June,
including the first day of June, nineteen hundred, the number of miles
operated by it within this state; and the said license tax shall be paid
into the treasury of this state on or before the first day of September
in each year, beginning with the first day of September, nineteen hun-
dred; and in default of the payment of said tax hereby imposed, or of
the making of such report, for thirty days after the same are respectively
required by this act to be made, a penalty of double the amount of the
tax hereby imposed shall be incurred, and shall be paid by such default-
ing company.

$ 25. Tax on telegraph and telephone companies.—On the real and
personal property of telegraph and telephone companies and of firms and
persons owning telegraph or telephone lines in this state, there shall be
a tax of thirty cents on every hundred dollars of the assessed valuc
thereof, the proceeds of which shall be applied to the support of the
government, and a further tax of ten cents on every hundred dollars’
worth of the assessed value thereof, which shall be applied to the sup-
port of the public free schools of the state. No telegraph or telephone
company, nor any agent or officer of such company, nor any firm ot
person operating the apparatus necessary to communicate by telegraph
or telephone, shall transmit any message or communication over the
wires of such company, firm, or person, between points both of which
are in this state, without a license authorized by law. If the busines:
be conducted by an incorporated company, the license shall be to the
company, which company may employ agents without a license being
required of such agents. If the business be conducted by any person,
firm, or company not incorporated, the license shall issue to such person,
firm, or company. One license for the same company shall be sufficient;
and this section shall not be construed to require a license for each office
of the same company. Any person or company violating the provisions
of this section shall pay a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor
more than four hundred dollars for each offense. The amount to be
paid by any telegraph agent or officer thereof for the privilege of operat-
ing for compensation the apparatus necessary to communicate by tele-
graph as aforesaid between points both of which are in this state, shall
be two dollars per mile of line of poles owned or operated by the com-
pany, firm, or person in this state, and an additional charge of two per
centum of the gross earnings of the company, firm, or person received,
or due, though not received, from their business done entirely within
this state during the year preceding, and no telegraph company which
shall have paid the taxes and licenses herein required shall be required
to pay an additional tax to the state, except the property tax hereinbefore
referred to.

There shall be a specific license tax to be paid by every corporation, per-
son, or association for the privilege of operating the apparatus necessary
to communicate by telephone, which tax shall be upon each of the said
telephone instruments owned, used, or operated by said corporation,
person, or association, or any of their subscribers, as follows: If the
number of such telephones be six hundred or less, then the tax shall
be fifty cents upon each of said telephones; if it be more than six hun-
dred but not exceeding one thousand, then the tax shall be seventy-five
cents upon each of said telephones; and if it be more than one thousand
and less than two thousand, then the tax shall be one dollar upon each
of said telephones, and if it be more than two thousand, then the tax
shall be one dollar and fifty cents upon each of said telephones. Such
sums, if the same be not paid within sixty days, shall be collected by any
treasurer to whom the auditor may deliver the assessment for collection.
The treasurer may distrain and sell any property of such company, and
shall pay the taxes into the treasury within sixty days after such assess-
ment shall have been delivered to him.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.