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The Tax Laws of Ohio

AS CODIFIED AND REVISED FOR

1917

SO FAR AS THE SAME RELATE TO

Assessment of Personal and Real

Property

BY

COUNTY AUDITORS, ASSESSORS AND
BOARDS OF REVISION, WITH
INSTRUCTIONS

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INSTRUCTIONS TO COUNTY AUDITORS

AND ASSESSORS.

THE NEW TAX LAW.

Under the new tax law each property owner is responsible for his own personal property tax return. County auditors are required to furnish blanks in the form prescribed by the Tax Commission of Ohio. They may furnish such blanks either by mailing same to each property owner or by placing them at convenient places in each taxing subdivision and giving notice thereof in one newspaper of general circulation in the county. It is the duty of each property owner to procure a blank and còrrectly list all his personal property thereon at the true value thereof in money, answer all questions contained in the blank, swear or affirm to the same and file it with the county auditor on or before May 1st.

The county auditor shall not receive any voluntary return of any property owner unless the same contains a complete statement of his property with full and specific answers to all questions. The oath may be administered by any assessor, assistant assessor, county auditor, deputy county auditor, mayor, justice of the peace, township clerk or notary public.

Any property owner who fails to file his tax return with the county auditor by May 1st, shall forfeit his right to the $100 exemption.

If the property owner refuses to make oath or affirm to his voluntary return filed with the county auditor, the latter shall add 50% penalty to the amount returned, or may proceed to have the property listed and valued as provided in sections 5366, 5391 and 5392, and add 50% penalty as provided in section 5390.

As voluntary returns are received by the county auditor they should be carefully examined and compared with the returns of former years so as to determine whether or not the same are full and complete and whether or not it is necessary to make any corrections therein. He is authorized by law to make any corrections of any voluntary returns under oath by first giving notice to the person listing.

The county auditor shall fill all the vacancies in the office of assessor and call a meeting of the assessors on the first Monday of May, notice of which shall be mailed or otherwise delivered to such assessors at least five days prior to date of such meeting. At such meeting the county auditor may go over with each assessor the voluntary returns made under the provisions of section 5366 in his subdivision so as to determine.

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whether of not the same are full and complete, and whether or not it is necessary to make any corrections therein, and also to determine as provided by section 5368 what persons, if any, have failed to make returns. It is then the duty of the assessor to list and assess all property which has been omitted from such returns or which has not been listed at its true value in money, and to list the property of all persons who failed to make voluntary returns.

Assessors are not entitled to any per diem compensation for any services rendered prior to the first Monday of May. They may receive out of the county treasury a fee of ten cents for adminstering the oath to each property owner making voluntary return before May 1st.

The county auditor is required to fix the time within which each assessor shall complete the work assigned to him after the first Monday of May.

ASSESSMENT OF REAL ESTATE.

County auditors are made the assessors of real estate. It is their duty, on or before the second Monday of April, 1917, and annually thereafter between the first day of January and the first day of February, to ascertain whether or not the real property in each township, village, ward or assessment district is assessed for taxation at its true value in money as the same then appears on the tax duplicate. He shall submit his findings to the board of county commissioners, which board, at a hearing fixed within not less than ten days nor more than twenty days, shall. confirm, modify or set aside his findings by an order entered on its journal. If it is thus determined that the real estate in any such sub-division is not on the duplicate at its true value in money, then the county auditor shall proceed to assess such real estate.

The county auditor is also required to make such assessment in any such sub-division upon the filing of a petition therefor signed by not less than twenty-five freeholders in such sub-division, by the board of trustees in any township or by the council of any village. Such petition must be filed not later than the fourth Monday of April, 1917, and the first Monday of March, annually, thereafter.

After an assessment of all the real estate in any sub-division has been made by the county auditor, it shall thereafter be his duty at any time, after notice, to re-value and assess any part of the real estate contained in such sub-division where he finds that the same has changed in value, or is not on the duplicate at its true value in money.

County auditors are empowered to appoint and employ such experts, assistants, clerks and other employees as they may deem necessary to the performance of their duties as real estate assessors, the total amount to be expended for such purpose to be fixed by the county commissioners. The compensation of such employees is to be paid out of the general

county fund, and if sufficient funds are not available for such purpose in the year 1917, county commissioners may borrow the same upon certificates of indebtedness.

Actual view of the premises is no longer required in the appraisement of real estate.

Assessors now have no duties to perform in relation to the appraisement of real estate.

ASSESSMENT OF MINERALS.

Petroleum, oil, natural gas, coal, limestone, fire clay and other minerals before being removed from the earth are real estate and must be assessed as such.

Section 5560 of the General Code requires that where the fee or ownership of the soil or surface of a tract, parcel or lot of land is in any person and the right to the minerals therein in another it shall be valued and listed agreeably to such ownership in separate entries specifying the interests listed, and be taxed to the parties owning different interésts respectively.

The county auditor in ascertaining as required by section 5548 whether the real property in each township, village or assessment district is assessed at its true value in money must include minerals, which are real estate.

Inasmuch as oil property fluctuates in value from year to year it would seem to be necessary that an assessment of such property be made. annually and as it is required to be assessed as real estate, in order to either increase or decrease the value of minerals and mineral rights as carried on the duplicate for the year 1916, it will be necessary for the county auditor to find that the real estate in a township or other taxing district in which minerals are located is not assessed at its true value in money, and proceed to assess ALL of the real estate in the township including the minerals as required by section 5548 of the General Code. After an assessment of all the real estate in any sub-division has been made, the county auditor is required in future years to revalue and assess only such real estate as has changed in value.

In valuing mineral rights and lands containng minerals, the following instructions should be observed: If the ownership of the surface and the ownership of the mineral or any part thereof is in the same person, then the surface and the mineral must be valued together and carried in one entry upon the tax duplicate. If the surface is owned by one person and the right to the mineral therein by another person or company, the surface should be listed in the name of the owner and the right to the mineral separately listed in the name of its owner; for example, if A owns the surface of a tract of land and B owns the right

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