Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

LC Subject Headings:

• Taxation -- Confederate States of America.
• Taxation -- Law and legislation -- Confederate States of America.

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[House of Representatives, No. 379.]

AN ACT

To levy additional taxes for the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five for the support of the government.

        1 The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact,
2 That in addition to the taxes levied by the act approved February
3 seventeenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled
4 "An act to amend an act entitled an act to lay taxes for the
5 common defence and carry on the Government of the Confederate
6 States," approved twenty-fourth of April, eighteen hundred
7 and sixty-three, there shall be levied for the year eighteen hundred
8 and sixty-five, on the subjects of taxation hereinafter mentioned,
9 and collected from every person, copartnership, association
10 or corporation liable therefor, taxes as follows, to-wit:

        1 I. Upon the value of all property, real, personal or mixed,
2 of every kind and description not hereinafter exempted, or taxed
3 at a different rate, eight per cent. The value of the property
4 taxed under this section shall be assessed on the basis of the
5 market value of the same or similar property in the neighborhood
6 where assessed, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty;
7 and it is hereby declared that all the property and assets of
8 corporations, associations or joint stock companies, whether
9 incorporated or not, shall be assessed and taxed in the same
10 manner and to the same extent as the property and assets of
11 individuals. The tax on such property and assets to be assessed
12 against and paid by such corporations, associations or
13 joint stock companies: Provided, That no bank or banking company

14 shall be liable to pay a tax on deposits of money to the
15 credit of, and subject to the checks of others: and provided further,
16 That the stock or shares representing property or assets
17 in corporations, associations or joint stock companies shall not
18 be assessed or taxed as property under this act; but the dividends
19 derived therefrom shall be subject to be taxed as income
20 under existing laws.

        1 II. Upon the amount of all gold or silver coin, and upon the
2 amount of all moneys held abroad or bills of exchange drawn
3 therefor, promissory notes, rights, credits and securities, payable
4 in foreign countries, and upon the value of all gold dust or
5 gold and silver bullion, valued in specie, twenty per cent; and upon
6 the value of gold and silver wares, plate, jewels, jewelry and
7 watches, valued on the basis of the value of such property in
8 the year eighteen hundred and sixty, ten per cent.

        1 III. Upon the amount of all moneys except those mentioned
2 in paragraph two, bank bills, treasury notes and other paper
3 issued as currency, on hand or on deposit on the day of the approval
4 of this act, five per cent.

        1 IV. Upon the amount of all solvent credits, except those
2 mentioned in paragraph two, five per cent.: Provided, That all
3 the bonds and stocks issued by the Confederate States or by
4 any State, and all loans to the government of the Confederate
5 States, shall be exempt from taxation, except as to the interest
6 payable thereon, which shall be taxed as income under existing
7 laws: Provided further, That the interest on the bonds,
8 stocks or obligations of the Confederate States, or of any State,

9 shall not be taxed as income in cases where the acts under
10 which they were issued contain a stipulation that the interest
11 thereon shall be exempt from taxation.

        1 V. Upon profits made by buying and selling merchandise,
2 effects, or property of any description, or money, gold, silver,
3 stocks, credits or obligations of any kind, at any time between
4 January the first, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and January
5 the first eighteen hundred and sixty-six, ten per cent., in addition
6 to the tax on such profits as income. Said profits to be ascertained
7 by the difference between the price paid in Confederate
8 treasury notes, including all costs and charges, and the
9 price realized in the same currency; Provided, That if the objects
10 of sale were purchased at any time since January the
11 first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, this additional tax shall
12 attach on the profits realized on the sale thereof during the year
13 eighteen hundred and sixty-five.

        1 VI. Upon the amount of profits exceeding twenty-five per
2 cent. made during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five by
3 any bank or banking company, insurance, canal, navigation, importing
4 or exporting, telegraph, express, railroad, manufacturing,
5 mining, dry dock, or other joint stock company, of any
6 description, whether incorporated or not, twenty-five per cent;
7 Provided, That this tax shall apply to individuals and partnerships
8 engaged in trade or in any business or employment enumerated
9 in this paragraph, as well as to corporations or joint
10 stock companies. Provided further, That individuals and partnerships
11 who have not been assessed, or who have not paid for

12 the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four the tax of seventy-five
13 per cent. imposed on the excess of profits over twenty-five
14 per cent. for that year, shall be assessed and required to pay
15 during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, twenty-five
16 per cent. on the excess of profits, over twenty-five per cent.,
17 realized during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four.

        1 SEC. 2. The property, the income and monies of Hospitals,
2 Asylums, Churches, Schools, Colleges and charitable institutions,
3 shall be exempt from taxation under the provisions of this act,
4 or any other law. All property within the lines of the enemy
5 shall be exempt from taxation, so long as it remains within such
6 lines; but any income derived therefrom shall be taxed as income
7 under existing laws. The exemptions enumerated in
8 paragraphs one, two and three, of section five of the act, entitled
9 "an act to levy additional taxes for the common defence
10 and support of the Government," approved seventeenth of
11 February, eighteen hundred and sixty four, are hereby re-enacted:
12 household furniture, when the value does not exceed
13 three hundred dollars, on the basis of the value thereof in the
14 year eighteen hundred and sixty, wearing apparel, goods
15 manufactured by any person for the use and consumption of his
16 family, including slaves, poultry, fruit and the products of gardens,
17 when said poultry, fruit and products are raised for the
18 family of the producer, and not for sale, corn, bacon and other
19 agricultural products, which were produced in the year eighteen
20 hundred and sixty-four, and necessary for the tax payer's
21 family, including slaves, during the present year, and in his

22 possession on the day of the approval of this act, shall be exempt
23 from taxation.

        1 SEC. 3. That the taxes on property for the year eighteen
2 hundred and sixty-five, imposed by this act, shall be assessed as
3 on the day of the passage of this act, and be due and collected
4 on the first day of June next, or as soon thereafter as practicable.
5 The additional taxes on profits for the year eighteen
6 hundred and sixty-five shall be assessed and collected according
7 to the provisions of existing laws in regard to the assessment
8 and collection of taxes on incomes, and all the taxes imposed by
9 this act, as well as the taxes on incomes and profits, and the
10 specific tax, and taxes on sales, shall be payable in Confederate
11 treasury notes, of the new issue, or in the certificates of indebtedness
12 authorized by an act entitled "an act to reduce the
13 currency and to authorize a new issue of notes and bonds," approved
14 February seventeenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four,
15 at par, without any allowance for interest: Provided, That at
16 least one-half of said taxes shall be paid in treasury notes, as
17 aforesaid, and, Provided further, That the tax for the increased
18 pay of soldiers shall be paid in Confederate treasury notes, of
19 the new issue, only. And it is hereby enacted that the certificates
20 of indebtedness, authorized by the said act of February
21 seventeen, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, may be issued for
22 debts contracted prior to the passage of said act. And the
23 Agent of the Treasury for the Trans-Mississippi Department,
24 be and he is hereby authorized to issue, under regulations to be
25 prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the certificates of

26 indebtedness provided for in said act of February seventeenth,
27 eighteen hundred and sixty-four, for debts contracted prior or
28 subsequent to the passage of said act, in the Trans-Mississippi
29 Department, and that all the certificates above mentioned shall
30 be received in payment of said taxes, in like manner and to
31 the same extent as the certificates originally authorized by the
32 said act of seventeenth of February, eighteen hundred and
33 sixty-four, subject to the provisions above mentioned.

        1 SEC. 4. That upon all the subjects of taxation mentioned
2 in this act and the act approved seventeenth of February,
3 eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled "an act to amend an
4 act entitled an act to lay taxes for the common defence and carry
5 on the Government of the Confederate States," approved twenty-fourth
6 of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, there
7 shall be levied and assessed for the year eighteen hundred
8 and sixty-five, an additional tax, in money, equal to one-eighth
9 of the amount of the tax on the same subjects, imposed for the
10 year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, by this act and the said act
11 of seventeenth of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-four;
12 which tax shall be payable in Confederate treasury notes, of the
13 new issue, only, and shall be assessed and collected at the same
14 time with the other taxes; and the money arising therefrom shall
15 be first appropriated to the payment of the increased compensation
16 of the soldiers of the army: Provided, That this additional
17 tax shall not be construed to apply to or to increase the
18 tax-in-kind.

         1 SEC. 5. Any tax payer, under regulations to be prescribed

2 by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be allowed to pay into
3 the Treasury, in advance, such sum or sums as he may choose,
4 on account of taxes to accrue against him, and to obtain therefor
5 an unassignable certificate of such payment.

        1 SEC. 6. Congress having intended by the act of the seventeenth
2 February, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled
3 "an act to levy additional taxes for the common defence and
4 support of the Government," as amended by the act of fourteenth
5 June, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, to impose said
6 additional taxes for the year eighteen hundred and sixty-four
7 only, the said act of seventeenth of February, eighteen hundred
8 and sixty-four, as amended, in so far as it can be construed to
9 operate otherwise than as thus intended, shall be, and the same
10 is hereby repealed. And all the taxes imposed by this act shall
11 be paid without any discount or credit for the value of the tax-in-kind
12 or the income tax, and all the taxes on incomes and
13 profits, under existing laws, shall be paid without any credit or
14 deduction of the ad valorem tax.

        1 SEC. 7. That when property, real or personal, has been
2 injured or destroyed by the enemy, or the owner thereof has
3 been temporarily deprived of the use thereof, or, in the case of
4 real estate, of the means of cultivating the same, by the reason of
5 the possession or proximity of the enemy, the assessment on
6 such property may be reduced in proportion to the damage
7 sustained by the owner, or the tax assessed thereon may be reduced
8 in the same ratio by the District Collector, on satisfactory
9 evidence submitted to him by the owner or Assessor.

        1 SEC. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury, on the recommendation
2 of the Boards of Police, County Courts, or such other
3 county, district or parish tribunal as may be prescribed by the
4 State Collectors respectively, transmitted through said collectors,
5 is hereby authorized to suspend the collection of taxes now
6 due, or imposed by this or any other future act, in those
7 districts where depredations have been committed by the enemy,
8 in cases of individuals in such districts, where, in his judgment,
9 the resources of the tax payer asking such suspension have
10 been so seriously damaged or destroyed as to render the payment
11 of taxes impossible or excessively oppressive; such suspension
12 to be revocable at the pleasure of the Secretary of the
13 Treasury.