ARTICLE 1 Taxable Property and Place of Taxation Section 1. Short title. 2. Definitions. 3. Property liable to taxation. 4. Exemption from taxation. 4-a. Exemption of intangible personal property. 10. (Repealed). 11. Place of taxation of property of corporations. 12. Taxation of corporate stock. 13. Stockholders of bank taxable on shares. 14. Place of taxation of individual bank capital. 15. Report of exempt property. 16. Exemption and reduction in assessment of lands planted with trees for forestry purposes. 17. Exemption and reduction in assessment of lands maintained as wood lots and to encourage the growth of trees for such purposes. § 1. Short title. This chapter shall be known as the "Tax Law." § 2. Definitions. 1. "Tax commission" as used in this chapter means the state tax commission and "tax department" means the state tax department. 2. "Comptroller" as used in this chapter means the state comptroller. 3. "Assessor" as used in this chapter shall be deemed to include any elected or appointed officer of any civil or political subdivision of the state, charged by law with the duty of assessing property for taxation for state, county or local purposes. 4. "Tax district" as used in this chapter, means unless otherwise herein provided a city or town of this state. 5. "County treasurer" includes any officer performing the duties devolving upon such office under whatever name. 6. The terms "land," "real estate," and "real property," as used in this chapter, include the land itself above and under water, all buildings and other articles and structures, substructures and superstructures, erected upon, under or above, or affixed to the same; all wharves and piers, including the value of the right to collect wharfage, cranage or dockage thereon; all bridges, all telegraph lines, wires, poles and appurtenances; all supports and inclosures for electrical conductors and other appurtenances upon, above and under ground; all surface, underground or elevated railroads, including the value of all franchises, rights or permission to construct, maintain or operate the same in, under, above, on or through, streets, highways or public places; all railroad structures, substructures and superstructures, tracks and the iron thereon; branches, switches and other fixtures permitted or authorized to be made, laid or placed in, upon, above or under any public or private road, street or ground; all mains, pipes and tanks laid or placed in, upon, above or under any public or private street or place for conducting steam, heat, water, oil, electricity or any property, substance or product capable of transportation or conveyance therein or that is protected thereby, including the value of all franchises, rights, authority or permission to construct, maintain or operate, in, under, above, upon, or through, any streets, highways or public places, any mains, pipes, tanks, conduits or wires, with their appurtenances, for conducting water, steam, heat, light, power, gas, oil or other substance, or electricity for telegraphic, telephonic or other purposes; all trees and underwood growing upon land, and all mines, minerals, quarries and fossils in and under the same, except mines belonging to the state. A franchise, right, authority or permission specified in this subdivision shall for the purpose of taxation be known as a "special franchise." A special franchise shall be deemed to include the value of the tangible property of a person, copartnership, association or corporation situated in, upon, under or above any street, highway, public place or public waters in connection with the special franchise. The tangible property so included shall be taxed as a part of the special franchise. No property of a municipal corporation shall be subject to a special franchise tax. 7. The term "special franchise" shall not be deemed to include the crossing of a street, highway or public place outside the limits of a city or incorporated village where such crossing is less than two hundred and fifty feet in length, unless such crossing be the continuation of an occupancy of another street, highway or public place. This subdivision shall not apply to any elevated railroad. 8. The terms "personal estate," and "personal property," as used in this chapter, include chattels, money, things in action, debts due from solvent debtors, whether on account, contract, note, bond or mortgage; debts and obligations for the payment of money due or owing to persons residing within this state, however secured or wherever such securities shall be held; debts due by inhabitants of this state to persons not residing within the United States for the purchase of any real estate; public stocks, stocks in moneyed corporations, and such portion of the capital of incorporated companies, liable to taxation on their capital, as shall not be invested in real estate. (Thus am'd by L. 1916, chap. 323, in effect Apr. 26, 1916.) All real property § 3. Property liable to taxation. within this state, and all personal property situated or owned within this state, is taxable unless exempt from taxation by law. § 4. Exemption from taxation. The following property shall be exempt from taxation: 1. Property of the United States. 2. Property of this state other than its wild or forest lands in the forest preserve. 3. Property of a municipal corporation of the state held for a public use, including real property held or used for cemetery purposes, and all lots and plats therein conveyed by the municipal corporation as places for the burial of the dead, except the portion of municipal property not within the corporation. 4. The lands in any Indian reservation owned by the Indian nation, tribe or band occupying them. 5. All property exempt by law from execution, other than an exempt homestead. But real property purchased with the proceeds, of a pension, bonus or insurance granted by the United States or by this state for military or naval services, and owned by the pensioner, the person receiving the bonus or the insured, or by his dependent mother, wife or widow, is subject to taxation as herein provided. Such property shall be assessed in the same manner as other real property in the tax districts. At the meeting of the assessors to hear the complaints concerning assessments, a verified application for the exemption of such real property from taxation may be presented to them by or on behalf of the owner thereof, which application must show the facts on which the exemption is claimed, including the amount of pension, bonus or insurance money used in or toward the purchase of such property. No such exemption on account of pension, bonus or insurance money shall be allowed in excess of five thousand dollars. If the assessors are satisfied that the applicant is entitled to the exemption, and that the amount of pension, bonus or insurance monev exempt to the extent authorized by this subdivision used in the purchase of such property .. equals or exceeds the assessed valuation thereof, they shall enter the word ".exempt" upon the assessment-roll opposite the description of such property. If the amount of such pension, bonus or insurance money to the extent authorized by this subdivision used in the purchase of the property is less than the assessed valuation, they shall enter upon the assessment-roll the words "exempt to the extent of ... dollars" (naming the amount), and thereupon such real property, to the extent of the exemption entered by the assessors, shall be exempt from state, county and general municipal taxation, but shall be taxable for local school purposes, and for the construction and maintenance of streets and highways. If no application for exemption be granted, the property shall be subject to taxation for all purposes. The entries above required shall be made and continued in each assessment of the property so long as it is exempt from taxation for any purpose. The provisions herein, relating to the assessment and exemption of property purchased with a pension, bonus or insurance, apply and shall be enforced in each municipal corporation authorized to levy taxes. (Subd. thus am'd by L. 1914, chap. 278; L. 1920, chap. 413; L. 1921, ch. 169, in effect April 9, 1921.) 6. Bonds of this state or any civil division thereof. (Subd. thus am'd by L. 1917, chap. 97, in effect Mar. 28, 1917.) 7. The real property of a corporation or association organized' exclusively for the moral or mental improvement of men or women, or for religious, bible, tract, charitable, benevolent, missionary, hospital, infirmary, educational, scientific, literary, library, patriotic, historical or cemetery purposes, or for the enforcement of laws relating to children or animals, or for two or more such purposes, and used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes, and the personal property of any such corporation shall be exempt from taxation. But no such corporation or association shall be entitled to any such exemption if any officer, member or employee thereof shall receive or may be lawfully entitled to receive any pecuniary profit from the operations thereof, except reasonable compensation for services in effecting one or more of such purposes, or as proper beneficiaries of its strictly charitable purposes; or if the organization thereof for any such avowed purposes be a guise or pretense for directly or indirectly making any other pecuniary profit for such corporation or association, or for any of its members or employees, or if it be not in good faith organized or conducted exclusively for one or more of such purposes. The real property of any such corporation or association entitled to such exemption held by it exclusively for one or more of such purposes and from which no rents, profits or income are derived, shall be so exempt, though not in actual use therefor by reason of the absence of suitable buildings or improvements thereon, if the construction of such buildings or improvements is in progress, or is in good faith contemplated by such corporation or association; or if such real property is held by such corporation or association upon condition that the title thereto shall revert in case any building not intended and suitable for one or more of such purposes shall be erected upon said premises or some part thereof. The use of any such real property as a polling place upon days of registration and election shall not be deemed to impair any exemption from taxation otherwise applicable thereto. The real property of any such corporation not so used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes but leased or otherwise used for other purposes, shall not be exempt, but if a portion only of any lot or building of any such corporation or association is used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one or more such purposes of any such corporation or association, then such lot or building shall be so exempt only to the extent of the value of the portion so used, and the remaining or other portion, to the extent of the value of such remaining or other portion, shall be subject to taxation: provided, however, that a lot or building owned and actually used for hospital purposes, by a free public hospital, depending for maintenance and support upon voluntary charity, shall not be taxed as to a portion thereof leased or otherwise used for the purposes of income, when such income is necessary for, and is actually applied to the maintenance and support of such hospital, and further provided that the real property of any fraternal corporation, association or body created to build and maintain a building or buildings for its meeting or meetings of the general assembly of its members, or subordinate bodies of such fraternity and for the accommodation of other fraternal bodies or associations, the entire net income of which real property is exclusively applied or to be used to build, furnish and maintain an asylum or asylums, a home or homes, a school or schools, for the free education or relief of the members of such fraternity, or for the relief, support and care of worthy and indigent members of the fraternity, their wives, widows or orphans, shall be exempt from taxation, and provided also that the real estate owned by a free public library, or held in trust by an educational corporation |