Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/883

EVANSVIIjLE NAT. BANK V. BRITTON. 869 �of 1872. My examination has been conducted in the hope that I should be able to reconcile the state law, in all its parts, with the act of congresa. But in that hope I have been disappointed. I am of opinion that the state revenue act establishes a rule of taxation which operates, in certain cases, to subject national bank shares to greater burdens than the same act imposes upon other moneyed capi- tal in the hands of individual citizens of Indiana. �A very brief reference to the provisions of the state law "will estab- lish this proposition. The law provides for the: taxation of national bank shares, in the hands of the respective owners, according to their fair cash or selling value. It excludes from the valuation of such shares any estimate whatever of the shareholder's debts. No allow- ance or deduction on that account is permitted. Although his debts may exceed the value of his national bank stock, he must pay taxes on the cash value of that stock, without reference to the amount of such indebtedness. �Turning, now, to the general provisions of the state law regulat- ing the assessment and valuation of the peusonal property of individ- ual citizens, other than bank shares, I find that each tax-payer is required to list, among other things, his "credits." 1 Eev. St. Ind. 1876, pp. 76, 81, §§ 15, 48. Under that head is included "money at interest, within or without the state." To that effeot is the recent decision of the supreme court of this state in Matter v. Campbell, 71 Ind. 512. He is not taxed for the full or fair value of such credits, but only upon the balance which may remain after deducting the amount of his honafide indebtedness, including his proportionate liabil- ity, as surety for others, arising from the inability or insolvency of the principal debtor, and for which he believes himself to be legally and equitably boundi but excluding all acknowledgmehts of indebted- ness not founded on actual consideration, or made for the purposo of being deducted. 1 Eev. St. Ind. 86, §§ 53-4; Matter y. Gampbell, 71 Ind .512. Plainly, therefore, money capital represented by loans, or invested in "credits," is not taxed as money capital represented by national bank stock is taxed, viz., according to its fair value, without reference to the indebtedness of the tax-payer. Only so much of a tax-payer's credits is taxed as exceeds the amount of his honafide indebtedness. A single illustration will show the operation of the state law in some cases of common occurrence. Suppose that A., having $10,000 in money, owing debts to the amount of $6,000, and having no credits, should invest that money in national bank shares. By the stafe law, as we have seen, he is required to pay taxes upon ��� �