Section 1. Whereas it is
claimed that the assessment of real estate and improvements in the city
of Manila has in many cases been unjust and not according to the true
value in money of the property assessed; and
Whereas it is claimed that in view of the novelty of the procedure, the
inexperience of the officials, and the ignorance of the property
holders as to the method to be pursued in remedying the injustice done
by the assessment, proper appeals have not been taken and satisfactory
review of the original assessment has not been had:
There is hereby created a temporary Board of tax Revision, which shall
perform the duties and exercise the powers hereinafter described and
conferred. The Board shall consist of seven members, all of whom shall
be either citizens of the United States or citizens of the Philippine
Islands and residents of the City of Manila. A majority of the Board
shall constitute a quorum, and the action of the Board shall be in
accordance with the vote of a majority of a quorum. The members shall
be appointed by the Civil Governor, by and with the advice and consent
of the Commission. Members of the Advisory Board and other municipal
officials shall be eligible for appointment as members of the Board of
Tax Revision. The chairman of the Board shall be designated in the
appointment. The members shall hold daily sessions from the fifteenth
day of January, nineteen hundred and three, until their work is
completed, but not later than the fifteenth day of May, nineteen
hundred and three, Sundays and holidays excepted, and shall each
receive as his compensation the sum of ten dollars, in money of the
United States, for each day's actual attendance upon the Board,
together with an allowance of two dollars per day, in money of the
United States, in lieu of all transportation expenses. The chairman of
the Board shall certify to the attendance of each member. The per diem
allowance of ten dollars shall not be allowed to any member of the
Board of Tax Revision who is in receipt of an annual salary from the
municipal or Insular Governments.
Sec. 2. The Board of Tax Revision shall examine
the assessments and value of all real estate and improvements thereon,
now made and on file in the office of the City Assessor and Collector;
it shall take up the consideration of the assessments by districts, and
in the order in which the properties appear to be assessed upon the
books of the City Assessor and Collector; it shall notify each taxpayer
by sending through the mail to his usual address, if any, written
notice of the day upon which consideration of the justice of the
assessment already made of the value of his property and its revision
shall take place, and also by advertisement by two insertions of the
same in two daily newspapers of Manila printed in the English language,
and two printed in the Spanish language.
Sec. 3. The Board of Tax Revision shall hear such
evidence as it may deem wise as to the value of the property, including
the rental income therefrom, and shall personally, so far as seems
necessary, view the lands and improvements, the value of which is under
consideration.
Sec. 4. The Board shall classify the land to be
taxed in the city into square meter and into hectare property. All land
in the thickly inhabited portions of the city shall be valued according
to the square meter, whether occupied or unoccupied. All land in the
outskirts of the city or in thinly inhabited and uninhabited portions
thereof, which is now valuable only for agricultural purposes, shall be
classified as hectare property and shall be assessed by the hectare or
part thereof.
In determining the value of the property, the Board of Tax Revision
shall give all consideration to the amount of income which the land and
improvements actually produce, and to the income which with reasonable
improvements the land might produce; but in the end the property shall
be taxed at its true value in money, to wit, the value at which it
would be sold in market if there is a market, and if there is not a
market value then at a reasonable value thereof. The Board of Tax
Revision shall not determine the value of the land, however, by the
estimate of the probable income which might be realized from it after
the further investment of capital, when such further investment is out
of proportion to the value of the land or involves a risk of loss which
land owners cannot be expected to assume. The Board of Tax Revision
shall not give to any unoccupied land its speculative or fanciful
value, but only its real value in money at the time of the revision.
All assessments shall be made in money of the United States.
Sec. 5. The Board of tax Revision shall have power
to increase or diminish the assessed value of all lands and
improvements in the city of Manila, and shall have power to assess new
improvements not before assessed and not appearing on the assessment
list of the City Assessor and Collector.
Sec. 6. The Board of Tax Revision shall not be
required to assess the value of lands exempted by law from taxation,
nor shall the Board have power to review the question whether proper
exemptions have been made by the existing taxing authorities of the
city.
Sec. 7. When the revision of the assessed value of
all the lands and improvements in the city of Manila shall have been
completed by the Board, on or before the fifteenth day of May, nineteen
and three, the Board shall certify over their signatures a list of the
changes made by them in the previous assessments, together with a list
of the total assessments of the taxable land and improvements in the
city of Manila to the City Assessor and Collector, who shall file the
same in his office and shall substitute this as the legal list of
assessments for the one now existing, and upon this list he shall
thereafter make his collection of taxes for the year nineteen hundred
and three: Provided, That for the year nineteen hundred and three taxes
shall not be delinquent if paid on or before August fifteenth, instead
of being delinquent on July first as now provided in section
forty-seven of the Manila Charter, Act Numbered One hundred and
eighty-three. a
Sec. 8. In case where the assessment under the
existing law shall be reduced by the Board of tax Revision and it shall
appear that the taxpayers appealed under the law to the Board of Tax
Appeals for a revision of the assessment, then and in that case the
City Assessor and Collector is hereby empowered and required to make
requisition as in other cases for a refund of the excess of taxes paid
under the old assessment over those which would have been paid had the
new assessment been in force in the years nineteen hundred and one and
nineteen hundred and two, and the Auditor is authorized and required to
settle the account and to issue a settlement certificate for the refund
as in other cases in favor of the taxpayer. All refunds made hereunder
shall be charged to the city of Manila and the Insular Government shall
not be charged with any part of the same. In case there has been a
transfer of the property after the first assessment and before the
going into effect of the revised assessment, then the refund of taxes
on the excess of valuation, if any, for the years nineteen hundred and
one and nineteen hundred and two shall be made to the owner of the
property at the time of the payment of the excess.
Sec. 9. The revised tax list shall constitute the
lawful assessment of real property and improvements in the city of
Manila for three years ending the first of January, nineteen hundred
and six. Section fifty-eight of the Manila Charter, Act Numbered One
hundred and eighty-three, is hereby repealed. At the close of the three
years mentioned in this section, the City Assessor and Collector shall
make a new assessment in accordance with the provisions of the Manila
Charter and the taxpayer shall have the remedies provided by that
Charter for unjust assessment and valuation.
Sec. 10. No member of the Board of Tax Revision
shall sit in consideration of the assessment of property in which he or
any member of his family or any relative within the fourth degree of
consanguinity or affinity shall have an interest. In cases where any
member or members of the Board shall be disqualified to act by reason
of this section, the remaining members of the Board are hereby
authorized to act in such cases as a full Board.
Sec. 11. Before assuming office each member of the
Board of Tax Revision shall take and subscribe to the following oath
before any officer authorized to administer oaths:
"I
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will well and truly revise all the
assessments now existing in the city of Manila of the value of real
estate and the improvements thereon, and will well and truly assess new
improvements not before assessed, all according to their true value in
money, and make due certificate of the same to the City Assessor and
Collector. So help me God.
(In case of affirmation the last
four words to be stricken out.)
(Signature) "______________
"Subscribed and sworn to (or
affirmed) before me this ______ day of ________, 19 _____
"______________________________"
(Signature of officer
administering oath.)
The oaths of the members shall
be field in the records of the Board by its secretary. i
Sec. 12. The Civil Governor shall appoint, by and
with the consent of the Commission, a secretary of the Board of Tax
Revision who shall receive a compensation of seven dollars a day, in
money of the United States, during the sessions of the Board. Any
employee of the City Assessor and Collector's Office shall be eligible
to appointment to the position of secretary and he shall receive the
compensation herein provided, but shall not receive his regular salary
while so employed.
Sec. 13. The City Assessor and Collector shall
furnish suitable rooms, desks, furniture, and stationery for the use of
the Board of Tax Revision during its sessions, and shall also transfer
for service under the secretary of the Board, without additional
compensation, duties under this Act. The secretary of the Board shall
have free use of mails for the public business of the Board and all
letters upon official business shall be mailed under his frank.
Sec. 14. The salaries and expenses of the Board of
Tax Revision shall be paid by the city of Manila from appropriation
duly made.
Sec. 15. The Board of Tax Revision shall cease to
exercise any powers herein granted on and after the fifteenth day of
May, nineteen hundred and three.
Sec. 16. This Act shall take effect on its
passage.
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