Limitation of the duties.Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the duties aforesaid, required of the principal assessors, and the compensation for the performance thereof, shall be confined to those states which shall not have assumed the payment of the direct tax laid in any year, or having assumed, shall not have duly paid, the same.
Penalties upon principal assessors for not performing duties required by this act.Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That in default of the performance of the duties enjoined by this act on any principal assessor, he shall forfeit and pay, for the use of the United States, a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered in the name of the United States, in any court having competent jurisdiction.
Letters to and from principal assessors on official subjects exempt from postage. Penalties imposed for infringing this provision.
Compensations of principal assessors.Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That all letters to and from the principal assessors, relative to their official duties, shall be transmitted free of postage. And any principal assessor who shall put his frank on any other letter shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten dollars, the whole of which shall be for the use of the person who shall give information thereof.
Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That in lieu of the compensations heretofore allowed to the principal assessors, they shall respectively receive, for every year in which a direct tax shall be laid, a salary of two hundred dollars, and three dollars for every hundred taxable persons contained in the tax lists delivered to the collectors, together with an allowance for their necessary and reasonable charges for books and stationery used in the execution of their duties, which said duties shall be considered as embracing the correction of errors, as authorized by law.President in his discretion may augment them.
Proviso.
Proviso. And the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorized to augment, in cases where he shall deem it necessary, the foregoing compensations: Provided, That there shall not be allowed to any one principal assessor, in any such year, more than two hundred dollars, in addition to his fixed compensation: And provided, That the whole extra amount thus allowed shall not exceed in such year ten thousand dollars. And for the purpose of carrying this act into effect, there is hereby appropriated in each year in which a direct tax shall be laid, a sum of one hundred thousand dollars, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated: Provided, That any other existing appropriation for the said purposes be, and the same is hereby repealed.
Commencement of the collection of direct tax.Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That in lieu of the time now fixed by law for the commencement of the collection of the direct tax, it shall be in each district immediately subsequent to the day on which the tax lists shall be delivered to the collector thereof.
Lands made liable for tax upon slaves.
In no instance are slaves to be bought on account of the United States.
Secretary of the Treasury may assign to commissioner of the revenue the superintendence of assessors’ valuations, &c.Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That in all cases in which a tax shall be charged for slaves, the real estate of the person charged therewith may be sold therefor, in the same manner as for a tax due thereon: but no slave sold for taxes shall be purchased on behalf of the United States.
Sec. 17. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the Treasury to assign to the commissioner of the revenue the duty of superintending the assessor’s valuations and assessments, under the laws imposing a direct tax, as well as the collection of the tax, subject to his directions and control, according to the powers vested in him by law.
Sec. 18. And be it further enacted, That the foregoing provisions shall apply to any direct tax imposed or to be imposed upon the District of Columbia,Provisions of this act extended to the District of Columbia. and shall be and remain in force, any thing in any former act or acts to the contrary notwithstanding.
Sec. 19. And be it further enacted, That the equalization and apportionment of the direct tax made in the year eighteen hundred and fifteen by the board or principal assessorsProviso—the board of principal assessors for the state of Delaware to convene in general meeting to equalize the direct tax upon that state.
1815, ch. 21.
1816, ch. 24. for the state of Delaware in virtue of the before-recited act, entitled “An act to provide additional revenues for defraying the expenses of government and maintaining the public credit, by laying a direct tax upon the United States, and to provide for the assessing and collecting the same,”
