oil pipe line companies, and all guarantee and fidelity companies, title insurance companies incorporated under any general or special law of this State, and doing business therein; and a State tax as a franchise tax of one per centum upon the annual gross receipts or earnings of all electric light companies incorporated under any general or special law of this State, doing business in this State if any such railroad company has part of its road in this State and part thereof in another State of one and one-half per centum upon the annual gross receipts of earnings of all electric construction and gas companies incorporated under any general or special law of this State, and doing business therein; and every guano, phosphate or ferti lizer company incorporated by or under the laws of any other State, territory, District of Columbia or foreign country, and doing business in this State and part thereof in another State or States, such company shall return a statement of its gross receipts over its whole line of road, together with a statement of the whole length of its line and the length of its line in this State, and such company shall pay to the State at the said rates hereinbefore prescribed upon such proportion of its gross earnings as the length of its line in this State bears to the whole length of its line; and similar statements shall be made by each oil pipe line company, and each sleeping car, parlor car, express or transportation company, telephone or telegraph or cable company so that the proportion of the said gross earnings of the said companies, respectively, accruing, coming from their business within this State, may be accurately ascertained, or said statement may be made in any other mode satisfactory to and required by the State Tax Commissioner; the said gross receipts taxes, shall be due and payable at the treasury on or before the first day of July in each year. All the provisions and requirements of this section shall be in force and applied to all corporations of like kind to those above enumerated which are doing business in this State, and which are incorporated by or under the laws of any other State, district, territory or foreign country. Every unincorporated association, partnership or individual engaged in any one or more of the above specially enumerated branches of business in this State, except guano, phosphate and fertilizer companies, shall

be subject to said gross receipts tax, and shall comply with all the provisions of this Article with reference thereto as fully as if such association, partnership or individual was a corporation.*

1904, art. 81, sec. 165. 1890, ch. 559, sec. 2.

168. It shall be the duty of each and every railroad company, telegraph company, cable company, express company, transportation company, oil pipe line company, title-insurance company, electric light company and electric construction company, telephone, parlor car, sleeping car, safe deposit, trust, guarantee and fidelity company incorporated under any general or special act of this State and doing business in this State, on or before the fifteenth day of April in each and every year to make a report under oath of its president, treasurer or other proper officer, to the State Tax Commissioner showing its total receipts or revenues accruing from business done in this State for the year ending on the preceding thirty-first day of January, and it shall be the duty of the State Tax Commissioner to file such report in his office, and on or before the first day of June next, and on or before the first day of June in each and every year thereafter, to calculate the State tax due from such corporation or company on its gross receipts or revenues aforesaid for such year, and to transmit the amount of such State tax to the Comptroller of the Treasury, to be collected and received into the State Treasury as other State taxes are received into the treasury of this State.

Ibid. sec. 166. 1890, ch. 559, sec. 3.

169. If any officer of any such corporation or company required to make a report as aforesaid shall in such report make a false statement he shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and if any such corporation or company so doing business in this State shall neglect or refuse to make such report or return to the State Tax Commissioner within the time specified as

The term "gross receipts" used in this section, held to mean only gross receipts based upon business done in this State. State vs. United States Fidelity Co., 93 Md. 314. See also as to meaning of term "gross receipts," section 170 of this Article. Meaning of safe deposit, trust, guarantee and fidelity companies, construed in reference to the term "gross receipts." State vs. Central Trust Co., 106 Md. 268. See also Washington Hospital vs. Mealy, 121 Md. 282.

aforesaid in any year, it shall be the duty of said Tax Commissioner to ascertain in any manner he may judge to be most available and certain, and to fix the amount of such gross receipts and revenues of such corporation or company for such year, and to calculate and assess the Stax tax on the amount of such gross receipts or revenues as so ascertained and fixed, and to transmit the amount of such tax to the Comptroller in the same manner as if such corporation or company had made its report or return according to the provisions of the preceding section, and it shall be the duty of such corporation or company to pay to the State Treasury the amount of such State tax on or before the first day of July in each and every year.

1908, ch. 552.

170. The terms "gross receipts," "gross receipts or earnings," "total receipts or revenues," "gross receipts or revenues," "gross receipts and revenues," as used in sections one hundred and sixty-seven, one hundred and sixty-eight and one hundred and sixty-nine, shall not include any income derived from the investment of the capital or surplus of any of the corporations mentioned in said section, and in case of the use of moneys received or deposited, they shall include only the difference between the receipts, earnings or revenues derived from the use of such deposited monies, and the interest paid on such deposits.*

1904, art. 81, sec. 167. 1890, ch. 559, sec. 4.

171. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller of the Treasury to receive such accounts of State taxes so transmitted to him by the State Tax Commissioner and forthwith to proceed to notify each such corporation or company of the amount of such State tax by transmitting by mail to the president, treasurer or other proper officer of such corporation or company, an account of such State taxes, enclosed in an envelope or cover, having thereon a proper postage stamp, and carefully directed to such president, treasurer or other officer, and shall note in a book kept for that purpose the date of placing in the mail the envelope or cover containing such account; if no appeal be taken within thirty days from the date of such notification the said

See note to section 167 of this Article.

ascertainment and assessment shall be final, but any such corporation or company may within thirty days after such notifi cation appeal from such ascertainment and assessment to the Comptroller of the Treasury and State Treasurer, stating in such appeal the reasons and grounds for such appeal, and the said Comptroller and Treasurer shall as soon as possible consider the same, and if the Comptroller and Treasurer shall both be of opinion that such ascertainment and assessment of the State Tax Commissioner is erroneous and ought to be changed, they shall change the same accordingly and the ascertainment and assessment so agreed upon by the Comptroller and Treasurer shall be final; but if either the Comptroller or Treasurer shall agree with the Tax Commissioner as to the correctness of the ascertainment and assessment so made by him then the appeal shall be dismissed and the original ascertainment and assessment shall be and remain as the true ascertainment and assessment for such year.

Ibid. sec. 168. 1890, ch. 559, sec. 5.

172. The State Tax Commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered to examine under oath, to be by him administered, any officer or agent of any such corporation or company touching the business in this State of such corporation or company, and the receipts and revenues accruing therefrom, and any such officer or agent refusing to be sworn, or refusing to testify his or her knowledge touching the said subject matter shall forfeit and pay to the State the sum of five hundred dollars for each such refusal, to be recovered by action at law, in the name of the State, against such officer or agent in any Court of this State having jurisdiction; the said State Tax Commissioner may also examine under oath any other person whom he may be advised or may believe has knowledge and information in the premises, and any such person refusing to be sworn or refusing to testify his or her knowledge in the premises shall forfeit and pay to the State the sum of five dollars for each such refusal, to be recovered by action at law, in the name of of the State, against such person so refusing, before a justice the peace having jurisdiction; and it shall be the duty of the State's Attorney of the county or city where such refusal has

occurred, on the information of the State Tax Commissioner, to bring suit for the recovery of such forfeitures as often as they may have occurred.

1904, art. 81, sec. 169. 1890, ch. 559, sec. 6.

173. If any such corporation or company from whom such taxes shall be due and payable on its gross receipts or revenues as aforesaid shall fail or neglect to pay the same to the Treasurer of the State for the space of one month after the same shall be due and payable as aforesaid, such corporation or company shall for such failure or neglect forfeit and pay to the State an additional amount of five per centum as penalty or damages, to be added to the said taxes so due and unpaid, and it shall be the duty of the Comptroller to add the same to the said account, and forthwith to make out said account and certify the same under the seal of his office, and to cause suit to be brought for said taxes in the Circuit Court for the county where the principal office of such corporation or company is located, or in the Superior Court of the City of Baltimore, the Court of Common Pleas, or the Baltimore City Court, if such principal office be located in said city, and the said suit shall stand for trial at the first term after the service of the writ shall have been made on such corporation or company, and service of the writ aforesaid on any officer, agent or employee of such corporation or company shall be deemed and taken as sufficient service on such company.

Ibid. sec. 170. 1890, ch. 559, sec. 7.

174. If upon the return of the writ issued against such corporation or company, the said corporation or company being duly summoned as aforesaid shall fail to appear by attorney or agent upon the first call of the docket, it shall be the duty of the Court to cause the personal appearance of said corporation or company to be entered, and the cause shall stand for trial or hearing and shall proceed, and judgment shall be rendered as if such corporation or company had appeared by attorney; and if such corporation or company shall appear by attorney or agent and either party shall desire or require a trial by jury, it shall be the duty of the Court to cause issues to be framed