Davenport Nat Bank v. Board of Equalization, City of Davenport, Iowa

• Decision Date: 31 October 1887
• Citation: 8 S.Ct. 73,31 L.Ed. 94,123 U.S. 83
• Parties: DAVENPORT NAT. BANK v. BOARD OF EQUALIZATION, CITY OF DAVENPORT, IOWA, and others. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

8 S.Ct. 73

123 U.S. 83

31 L.Ed. 94

DAVENPORT NAT. BANK v. BOARD OF EQUALIZATION, CITY OF DAVENPORT, IOWA,

and others.¹

October 31, 1887.

A. J. Hirschl and W. T. Dittoe, for plaintiff in error.

E. E. Cook, L. M. Fisher, and C. A. Ficke, for defendants in error.

MILLER, J.

This is a writ of error to the supreme court of the state of Iowa. The question presented grows out of the allegation on the part of the bank, which is a national bank located in Iowa, that the shares of its stock are taxed at a rate which is in excess of the taxes levied upon other moneyed capital of the state. The foundation of this allegation is that the statute of the state on this subject taxes savings banks, one of which is in the same town with the plaintiff, on the amount of its paid-up capital, and does not tax the shares of those banks held by the individual shareholders. The case, passing through the proper stages in the state tribunals, was decided by the supreme court against the plaintiff.

The proposition of counsel seems to be that the capital of savings banks can be taxed by the state in no other way than by an assessment upon the shares of that capital held by individuals, because, under the act of congress, the capital of the national banks can only be taxed in that way. It is strongly urged that in no other mode than by taxing the stockholders of each and all the banks can a perfect equality of taxation be obtained. The argument is not conclusive, if the proposition were sound; for the act of congress does not require a perfect equality of taxation between state and national banks, but only that the shares of the national banks shall not be taxed at a higher rate than other moneyed capital in the hands of individuals. That this does not mean entire equality is evident from the fact that, if the capital of the national banks were taxed at a much lower rate than other moneyed capital in the state, the banks would have no right to complain, and the law in that respect would not violate the provisions of the act of congress for the protection of national banks. It has never been held by this court that the states should abandon systems of taxation of their own banks, or of money in the hands of their other corporations, which they may think the most wise and efficient modes of taxing their own corporate organizations, in order to make that taxation conform to the system of taxing the national banks upon the shares of their stock in the hands of their owners. All that has ever been held to be necessary is that the system of state taxation of its own citizens, of its own banks, and of its own corporations...