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order the company to correct or remove such meter and to substitute a correct meter therefor. All fees for examinations and tests shall in the first instance be paid by the person or company making application therefor; but if the examination or test is made at the request of a customer and the meter is found to be incorrect because too fast the company shall pay such fees to the board, to be repaid by it to the applicant. A meter shall be deemed correct for the purposes of this section if it appears from such examination or test that it does not vary more than five per cent from the standard approved by the board.

of electric

expense and

1901, 497,

$82, 3;.

Affected.

See 1909, 318.

SECTION 37. The person designated to make such in- Inspection spection may at any reasonable time enter upon any prem- meters, ises where the meter to be inspected is placed, for the registration purpose of making the inspection. He shall receive such thereof. compensation for his services as the board may determine, together with his necessary travelling and other expenses, which shall be audited by the board and paid from the treasury of the commonwealth; but the total amount of compensation and expenses shall not exceed three thousand dollars in any year; and if the total amount of such compensation and expenses shall in any year exceed the amount of the fees received for such examinations and tests, the excess shall be assessed and recovered from the electric light companies in the manner now provided for the assessment and recovery of the other expenses of the board. All money received for fees for such examinations and tests shall be paid into the treasury of the commonwealth by the board quarterly on the first Mondays of January, April, July and October of each year. The board may establish such rules and regulations, fix such standards, prescribe such fees, and employ such means and methods in, and in connection with, such examinations and tests of electric meters as in the judgment of the board shall be most practicable, expedient and economical. The board may purchase such materials, apparatus and standard measuring instruments for such examinations and tests as it may deem necessary.

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1901, 497,

SECTION 38. In the two preceding sections the word Definition. company or companies" shall include every person, $4. partnership, association, corporation and municipality engaged in the sale of incandescent electric light or electricity for incandescent lighting.

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SECTION 39. Companies, persons and municipalities engaged in the manufacture and sale of gas or electricity for light or fuel shall, within twenty-four hours, report, in writing, to the board every accident caused by the gas or electricity manufactured or supplied by them, whereby an employee or other person is injured, killed or rendered insensible, stating the time, place and circumstances of the accident and such other facts relative thereto as the board may require. The chief of police of the city or town, and the medical examiner of the district, in which such accident occurs shall, in writing, report the same to said board. The chief of police shall so report within twenty-four hours, and the medical examiner within seven days, after he has notice thereof. The members of the board shall personally investigate all cases which require investigation.

SECTION 40. Whoever unlawfully and intentionally injures or destroys, or suffers to be injured or destroyed, any meter, pipe, conduit, wire, line, pole, lamp or other apparatus belonging to a street railway company, an electric railroad company or a corporation, private or munici pal, or company engaged in the manufacture or sale of electricity for lighting purposes, or unlawfully and intentionally prevents an electric meter from duly registering the quantity of electricity supplied, or in any way interferes with its proper action or just registration, or, without the consent of such corporation or company, unlawfully and intentionally diverts any electric current from any wire of such corporation or company, or otherwise unlawfully and intentionally uses or causes to be used, without the consent of such corporation or company, any electricity manufactured or distributed by such corporation or company, shall, for every such offence, be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

SECTION 41. In the construction of sections four, five, six, seven, eight, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-three, and thirty-four of this chapter, the terms gas company", and "corporation" shall include all persons owning or operating works for the manufacture and sale of gas for heating or illuminating purposes

66

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company

" and

within the commonwealth, and the terms
"companies" shall include all corporations or individuals
engaged in the manufacture and sale of electric light
within the commonweath.

Acts of 1909, chapter 490, Part I., § 23 (as amended by Acts of 1909, chapters

439 and 440).

of personal estate.

SECTION 23. All personal estate, within or without the com- Assessment monwealth shall be assessed to the owner in the city or town in which he is an inhabitant on the first day of [May] April, except as provided in Part III and in the following clauses of this

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Rs. 7,
$8,9,10,

1830, 151, § 2.

1839, 139, § 2.

Tenth, Underground conduits, wires and pipes laid in public streets, and poles, underground conduits and pipes, together with the wires thereon or therein, laid in or erected upon private property, or in a railroad location by any corporation, except street railway companies, the value of whose poles, underground conduits and pipes, together with the wires thereon or therein, for the purpose of taxation, shall, like their rails and rights of way, be included in, and not deducted from, the value of their corporate franchises ascertained as provided by section one hundred and twenty-six of Part III of chapter four hundred and sixty-three of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six, and excepting also such poles, underground conduits, wires and pipes of a railroad corporation laid in the location of said railroad, shall be assessed to the owners thereof in the cities or towns in which they are laid or erected.

Acts of 1909, Chapter 490, Part III., §§ 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45.

TAXATION OF CORPORATE FRANCHISES.

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SECTION 39. The term "domestic business corporation as Definitions. used in this act shall mean every corporation of the classes enumerated in section one of chapter four hundred and thirty-seven of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and three; the term foreign corporation" shall mean every corporation, association or organization of the classes enumerated in section fifty-eight of said chapter.

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§ 37.

§ 2.

1902, 342,

1903, 437, § 48.

1906, 463, II.,

§ 211; III.,

§ 125; 516, § 14.

12 Allen, 75. 98 Mass. 25. 139 Mass. 561.

144 Mass. 598.

146 Mass. 408.

179 Mass. 18.

SECTION 40. Every corporation organized under the general or special laws of the commonwealth for purposes of business or profit, having a capital stock divided into shares, except banks, whose shares are otherwise taxable under the provisions of this part, in addition to all returns required by its charter, and in addition to all returns otherwise required under the provisions of this part, shall annually, between the first and tenth days of [May] April make a return to the tax commissioner, under oath of its treasurer, stating the name of the corporation, its place of business, and setting forth as of the first day of [May] April of the year in which the return is made:

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First, The total authorized amount of the capital stock of the corporation; the amount issued and outstanding and the amount then paid thereon; the classes, if any, into which it is divided; the par value and number of its shares; the market value of the shares of its stock, or of each class of its stock, if there are two or more classes.

Second, A statement in such detail as the tax commissioner may 157 Mass. 70 require of the works, structures, real estate, machinery, under[1 Op. A. G. ground conduits, wires and pipes, owned by said corporation and 278. subject to local taxation within the commonwealth, and of the 185 Mass. 117. location and value thereof; and, in the case of domestic business corporations, of the merchandise and other assets belonging to the corporation within and without the commonwealth.

181 Mass. 208.

195 Mass. 387.

Amended. 1909, 440,

§ 2.

Third, And, except as to street railway companies, a complete list of the shareholders of the corporation, their residences, and the amount and class of stock, if more than one, belonging to each. If stock is held as collateral security, the list shall state the name and residence of the pledgor and of the pledgee.

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Such domestic companies may annually, between the first and tenth days of [May] April, make a return to the tax commissioner, signed and sworn to by their president, treasurer and clerk, specifying the amount and market value of all stocks in other corporations held by them upon which a tax has been assessed and actually paid either in this or in any other state for the year preceding the date of said return; and the books, accounts and papers of such corporations shall be examined by the tax commissioner so far as may be necessary for the verification of said return. Other corporations required to make a return under the provisions of this section shall also state therein the amount, value and location of all works, structures, real estate, machinery, underground conduits, wires and pipes owned by them and sub

ject to local taxation without the commonwealth. Such return shall be filed by the tax commissioner, and shall, in the case of said domestic business corporations, be open only to the inspection of the tax commissioner, his clerks and assistants, and such other officers of the commonwealth as may have occasion to inspect it for the purpose of assessing or collecting taxes.

corporate

franchise, etc. Deductions.

1864, 208,

§§ 5, 6. 1865, 283,

SECTION 41. The tax commissioner shall ascertain from the Valuation of returns or otherwise the true market value of the shares of each corporation subject to the requirements of the preceding section, and shall estimate therefrom the fair cash value of all of said shares constituting its capital stock on the preceding first day of [May] April, which, unless by the charter of a corporation a different method of ascertaining such value is provided, shall, for the purposes of this part, be taken as the true value of its corporate franchise. From such value there shall be deducted:

$84,5
$2.

1880, 117,

P. S. 13,

$$ 39, 40. $1.

1885, 238,

1886, 270.
1898, 417.
R. L. 14, § 38.
1902, 342,

1903, 437,

$72,

1906, 463, II.,

§ 212; III.,

§ 126; 516,

§ 15.

1907, 395.

1909, 439,
§ 2.
13 Allen, 391.

98 Mass. 19,

25.

100 Mass. 184,

399.

Third, In case of a domestic business corporation, the value $3 of the works, structures, real estate, machinery, poles, underground conduits, wires and pipes owned by it within the commonwealth subject to local taxation, and of securities which if owned by a natural person resident in this commonwealth would not be liable to taxation; also the value of its property situated in another state or country and subject to taxation therein. [but] There shall not be deducted the value of securities which if owned by a natural person resident in this commonwealth would be liable to taxation; and the tax commissioner in determining for the purposes of taxation the value of the corporate franchise of any such corporation shall not take into consideration any debts of such corporation unless the returns required from it contain a statement duly signed and sworn to, setting forth that no part of such debts was incurred for the purpose of reducing the amount of taxes to be paid by it.

Fourth, In case of corporations subject to the requirements of the preceding section, other than railroad corporations, telegraph, telephone, street railway and electric railroad companies, whether chartered or organized in this commonwealth or elsewhere, and of domestic business corporations, the value as found by the tax commissioner of their works, structures, real estate, machinery, underground conduits, wires and pipes, subject to local taxation wherever situated.

For the purposes of this section the tax commissioner may take the value at which such works, structures, real estate, machinery, poles, underground conduits, wires and pipes are assessed at the

125 Mass. 568.

137 Mass. 80.

139 Mass. 561. 146 Mass. 408. 157 Mass. 70.

144 Mass. 598.

152 Mass. 372.

167 Mass. 522.

163 U. S. 1. 179 Mass. 18. 1909, 440, § 2. 1910, 270.

Amended.

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