Taxation in the Philippines. be heard by the Board from land owners feel ing themselves aggrieved by the assessment. is posted in public places. The law also pro vides that appeal may be taken within ten days from the decision of the Municipal Board to the Board of Tax Appeals, consis.ing of the Provincial officials, Governor, Treasurer and Supervisor, who by the law are to decide the matter submitted within fifteen days after the time limited for filingappeals. There is liable to arise serious misunder standing in regard to the necessity of making complaint and taking their appeal within the time limited by the law by the dissatisfied taxpayer. The Oriental is characteristically slow, none more so than those of the Malay race, which manana tendency is not helped by their Spanish training. Ten days to them means twenty days, or a month, or two months. When, some days after the timf limited by law, the aggrieved party appears to make his complaint of excessive taxation. and finds that he is precluded from any re dress, he feels that gross" injustice has been committed, as. in fact, in numerous instances is the truth. Much difficulty is experienced by the American officials on the Provincial Appeal Boards in avoiding doing great injus tice owing to the ignorance of the complain ants, their want of appreciation of the neces sity of making their complaint within the time provided by law, and especially from the partial and prejudiced valuations of the real estate made by the native members of thf Municipal Board of Assessor* There is one species of official dishonesty the Filipino rarely rises superior to, that is, resisting the temptation to reward a friend and punish an enemy in making- an official award or decision. In instances the lands of certain parties are valued at an exorbitant figure, in other cases they may be valued at a rate ridiculously below their actual value. In an instance recently before the Provincial Board of Appeals of this province, thr owner
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of certain land offered to make the govern ment a deed of the land rather than pay the lax imposed, if she were assured that no far ther demand were made on her for the tax imposed on the real estate. In another case the land was valued for taxation at forty dol lars a hectare (about two and one-half acres), the owner said he would sell the property for one dollar per hectare, and meant what he said, as on one of the officials asking him if he was in earnest he replied that he was, and would part with the land at any time for that price. The official went out and after view ing the tract, concluded that he did not want it at that price, the land being almost worth less. The party alluded to thought he might invest a hundred pesos in the land for the purpose of setting it out in cocoanuts, which grow well on sandy soil, but decided that the hundred hectares not to he worth a hundred pesos for a cocoanut plantation. In both the cases referred to the complainants were late in making their complaint, the ten days hav ing expired; the Board of Appeals, however, anxious to avoid doing great injustice in the case, referred the matter to the Commission at Manila. Under the law, the owner of land cannot | relinquish it to the government and avoid further taxation, as the tax is collected first from the personalty of the land owner. The real estate being resorted to onlv where the owner is unknown or has no personal proncriv available 1 f t he payment of the land tax be delayed three weeks after due, a penalty of fifteen per cent, is added, which sum with the principal amount due is satisfied, if not paid fifteen days after the expiration of the three weeks, by the seizure and sale, by the Provincial Treasurer, of sufficient personal property of the debtor, to pay the tax. costs and penalty, said sale being made after ten days' notice, the owner being allowed to redeem the prop erty seized any time before sale by the pay ment of tax, penalty and costs. The tax?nd
