viii REPORT OF THE

certified to the County Commissioners of the county, and to
the Appeal Tax Court of the city, and the corporation is
directly charged with the payment of the taxes in solido.
This, while it insures to the county or city where the shares
are owned, the collection of the taxes on all the shares owned
in such county or city, is also an accommodation to all share-
holders who are disposed to pay their taxes properly, and with-
out an attempt at evasion. At the same time evasion of any
sort, if desired, is impracticable from the fact, that in this cen-
tral office all the taxable shares must be charged somewhere,
and if a mistake occurs in the residence of any stockholder, it
cannot be abated in one county until it is simultaneously
charged in the other, where the correction shows it to belong.
The payment of the taxes by the corporation in a lump, for
all its stockholders, is not only a vast relief to the city and
county authorities, but is, in fact, a relief to the stockholders
themselves, who, under the present system, receive their
dividends free and discharged from any lien for taxes or detrac-
tion on such account.

I recommend that provision be made by law for an appeal
by the State, in any case where it may be discovered that the
assessment has been made lower than the facts of the case-
may warrant. It may occur that from a defective return, or
from some misapprehension, the assessment may be made
lower than it should have been, and in such case it is neces-
sary, in my judgment, that the Comptroller should be autho-
rized by law, either on his own motion, or on the suggestion
of the County Commissioners of any county, or the Appeal
Tax Court of the City of Baltimore, to make au appeal in
any case where the assessment may be considered as too low,
in order that the assessment may be reviewed and determined
in the same manner as is now provided by law in case of the
dissatisfaction of the corporation whose shares of stock have
been assessed. It may occur that after an assessment has
been made and turned over to the Comptroller, that further
information may be obtained, showing the assessment to be
inadequate, and if the appeal is provided as suggested, no
injustice need be done to the State and local authorities on
account of it, as the defect can be remedied by a rehearing