Section 3 History of Bank Taxation in Missouri

• Library: Tax Law 2009

Under the 1864 National Bank Act, 13 Stat. 99, ch. 106, Missouri statutes initially provided for a tax on the shares of stock owned in national banks. Attempts were made to impose taxes on the national banks themselves, and the Supreme Court of Missouri consistently held against those attempts. See, e.g., Lionberger v. Rowse, 43 Mo. 67 (1868), aff’d, 76 U.S. (9 Wall.) 468 (1869). Although the federal statute prohibited assessing the tax against the bank directly, Missouri law required the bank to remit the tax on bank shares on behalf of its shareholders. Because the tax was assessed against the shareholders and merely collected and remitted by the bank, neither the tax nor requiring the bank to collect and remit the tax violated the...