Sec. 16. #General plan for corporate taxation.# The main features in such a plan of reform would be as follows: 

(a) Assessment of all wealth by a state agency, with expert nonlocal assessors, appointed and serving only under the merit system.

(b) The assessment of the value of each enterprise and body of wealth as a unit for the whole state, and apportioned to the minor divisions as the basis for levying local taxes.

(c) Apportionment of the total value in the state among the localities by general rule, in the case of transportation and transmission companies, by mileage with due regard to the presence of local real estate and of special industrial equipment such as repair shops and power plants.

(d) Taxation of interstate enterprises only in due proportion to the whole business, by mileage or other rules; inter-state comity to be further developed in this matter.

(e) Account to be taken, in assessment, of various factors determining the earning power, such as good will, patents, and other monopolistic elements, pertaining to and helping to determine the value of the tangible plant of the enterprise.

(f) Account to be taken of the market value of securities and notes owned by a corporation, in determining the taxable value of the whole business, but these not to be treated as a separately assessable “property” (in addition to the tangible plant).

(g) Exemption of the holders of securities and evidences of indebtedness of corporations.{15}

(h) Treatment of special privileges granted to public-service corporations for the use of streets and public highways on the principle of rent-payment to the community rather than by levying a percentage on an assessment.

[Footnote 1:  For example, the constitution of Alabama declares:  “All taxes levied on property in this state shall be assessed in exact proportion to the value of such property,” etc.  And the constitution of Indiana declares:  “The general assembly shall provide, by law, for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation of all property, both real and personal, excepting,” etc.  Similar statements occur in most state constitutions.]

[Footnote 2:  The general property tax in the United States constitutes: 

  Of the revenue receipts of the states 38 per cent. 
  Of the revenue receipts of the counties 76 per cent. 
  Of the revenue receipts of the incorporated places. 60 per cent.

The total amount collected in this way in 1913 was over $1,083,000,000.]

[Footnote 3:  See above, ch. 2, secs. 2, 3, and reference there to Vol.  I.]

[Footnote 4:  See above, ch. 2.]

[Footnote 5:  See Vol.  I, pp. 116, 117, 145, 445-455.]

[Footnote 6:  See Vol.  I, pp. 117, 146, 453.]

[Footnote 7:  See above, sec. 4.]

[Footnote 8:  No reference is made in what follows to fees payable but once for the incorporation of new companies or at times of increasing the capital stock of an old one, variously called taxes on corporate charters, license taxes, incorporation fees, organization fees, and charter fees.]