Chap. 496.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 36 of an act entitled an act
to raise revenue for the support of the government and public free schools,
and to pay interest on the public debt, and to provide a special tax for
pensions as authorized by section 189 of the Constitution, approved April
16, 1903, as heretofore amended. [H B 105)

Approved March 26, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion thirty-six of an act entitled an act to raise revenue for the sup-
port of the government and public free schools, and to pay interest on
the public debt and to provide a special tax for pensions as author-
ized by section one hundred and eighty-nine of the Constitution, ap-
proved April sixteenth, nineteen hundred and three, as heretofore
amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 36. License tax on telegraph and telephone companies, and on
/ . .
any firm or person operating the apparatus necessary to communicate

by telegraph or telephone.—Each telegraph company and firm, or per-
son, operating the apparatus necessary to communicate by telegraph.
shall, for the privilege of doing business between points within this
State, pay a license tax as follows, to-wit:' Two dollars per mile of
line of poles or conduits owned or operated by the company, firm
or person in this State, and an additional charge of two per centum
of the gross receipts of the company, firm or person received (or due.
though not received), from business done within this State during the
year ending the thirtieth day of June.

The specific license tax to be paid by every corporation, person
or association for the privilege of operating the apparatus necessary
to communicate by telephone, shall be, when the gross receipts do not
exceed fiffy thousand dollars, and when the number of poles do not
exceed six hundred miles, and a majority of the stock or other prop-
erty of such company is not owned or controlled by any other tele-
phone or telegraph company whose receipts exceed fifty thousand
dollars, a sum equal to one per centum of the gross receipts of such
corporation, person or association from business done within this
State during the year ending the thirtieth day of June preceding:
when the gross receipts from business done within this State during
any such year are in excess of fifty thousand dollars, or the numbe-
of miles of poles exceed six hundred or a majority of the stock or
other property of such company is owned or controlled by any other
telephone or telegraph company whose receipts exceed fifty thousand
dollars, the license tax shall be a sum equal to one per centum of such
receipts up to fifty thousand dollars and an additional sum equal to two
per centum of such receipts exceeding ‘fifty thousand dollars, and, in
addition, a sum equal to two dollars per mile of line of poles or con-
duits, owned or operated by such corporation, person, or association
in this State; provided, that no license tax shall be charged against
any telephone company, chartered in this State for the privilege o1
prosecuting its business when such company is purely a local mutua!
association, and does not charge others for transmitting messages over
its line or lines, and is not designed to accumulate profits for the
benefit of, or to pay dividends to, the stockholders or members thereof.

The license tax to be paid by any firm or person not incorporated
transacting a telegraph or telephone business, or owning or operating
a telegraph or telephone instrument, line or conduit, shall be assessed
by the commissioner of the revenue for the district or city wherein the
principal office of such firm or person is located, or in which such
firm or person resides.