oath of the president, treasurer, superintendent or chief officer in this state, of such association or corporation, if an association or corporation, make and file with the State Board of Tax Commissioners a statement, in such form as the board may prescribe, containing the following facts:

1st. The name of the person, or persons, association or corporation.

2nd. Under the laws of what state or country organized. 3rd. The location of its principal office.

4th. The name and postoffice address of the president, secretary, auditor, treasurer, superintendent and general manager. 5th. The name and postoffice address of the chief officer, or managing agent of the company in this state.

6th. The entire receipts (including all sums earned or charged, whether actually received or not), for business done within this state, including its proportion of gross receipts for business done by such company within this state in connection with other companies.

7th. Such other facts and information as the said board may require in the form of return prescribed by it. Blanks for making the above statement shall be prepared and furnished any express company by the said board. (L. '07, §2, p. 79.)

$198. Tax Commission Shall Ascertain Gross Receipts.

The State Board of Tax Commissioners shall proceed to ascertain and determine, on or before the first Monday in July, the entire gross receipts of each of said express companies for business done within the State of Washington for the year next preceding the first day of April, and the amount so ascertained shall, in such instances, be held and deemed to be the gross receipts of such express company for business done within the State of Washington for the year under consideration. (L. '07, $3, p. 80.)

$199. Hearings.

The board may adjourn from time to time until the business before it is finally disposed of. In case of failure or refusal of any express company to make the statement required by law,

or furnish the board any information requested by it, the board shall inform itself as best it may on the matters necessary to be known in order to discharge its duty. And at any time after the meeting of the board on the first Monday in June, and before the gross receipts of any express company for business done within the State of Washington are determined, any person, company or corporation interested shall have the right, on written application, to appear before the board and be heard in the matter of such determination. After the determination of the amount of the gross receipts of any express company for business done in the State of Washington and before the certification of the State Board of Tax Commissioners of such amount, the board may, on the application of any person, company or corporation interested, or on its own motion, review and correct its findings, in such manner as may seem to it to be just and proper. (L. '07, §4, p. 80.)

$200. Penalty for Failure to File Statement.

In case any express company shall refuse, fail or neglect to make and file the statement or schedule, as provided for in this act, such company shall be subject to a penalty of five hundred dollars ($500.00), and an additional penalty of one hundred dollars ($100.00) for each day's omission after the 30th day of April to file its statement, said penalty to be recovered by action in the name of the state, and, on collection, paid into the state treasury to the credit of the general fund of the state. The Attorney General, on request of the State Board of Tax Commissioners, shall institute such action against any such person or persons, joint stock company or corporation so delinquent in any court of competent jurisdiction in this state. (L. '07, §5, p. 80.)

$201. Witnesses.

The State Board of Tax Commissioners shall have power to require the president, secretary, treasurer, receiver, superintendent, managing agent, or other officer, or employe, or agent, of any express company, or any person, joint stock company or corporation, engaged in the express business, to attend be

fore the board, and bring with him for the inspection of the board, any books or papers, of such person or persons, joint stock company or corporation, in his possession, or under his control, and to testify under oath, touching any matter relating to the organization or business of such person or persons, joint stock company, or corporation. Any member of the board is authorized and empowered to administer such oath. Any officer, employe or agent, who shall refuse to attend before the board when requested so to do, or shall refuse to bring with him and submit for the inspection of the board, any books, records or papers in his possession, custody or control, or shall refuse to answer any questions put to him by the board or any member thereof, touching the organization or business of such person, persons, joint stock company or corporation, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be fined, not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) nor less than one hundred dollars ($100.00). (L. '07, §6, p. 81.)

$202. Five Per Cent. Tax.

The State Board of Tax Commissioners shall on the first Monday in August, annually, enter the amount of gross receipts of express companies doing business in this state, for the year then next preceding the first day of April, as determined as provided for in section three of this act in a book provided for that purpose. It shall be the duty of the State Treasurer, annually, to collect from each such express company, doing business in this state, a sum in the nature of an excise or privilege tax, to be computed by taking five per centum of the amount fixed by the State Board of Tax Commissioners as the gross receipts of such express company for business done within the State of Washington for the year next preceding the first day of April, as determined and certified by the State Board of Tax Commissioners: Provided, Nothing contained in this act shall exempt or relieve any express company from the assessment and taxation of their tangible property in the manner authorized and provided by law. All taxes collected under the provisions of this act shall be credited to the state general fund. (L. '07 $7, p. 81.)

$203. Actions to Collect Tax.

If any express company fails or refuses to pay the said tax as provided for in section seven before the 30th day of September, annually, the State Treasurer shall proceed to collect the tax, together with interest, at the rate of fifteen per centum per annum, by suit instituted by the Attorney General, whose duty it shall be, upon the request of the State Treasurer, or upon request of the State Board of Tax Commissioners, to prosecute any and all proceedings for the collection of such tax. (L. '07, §8, p. 82.)

TAXATION OF INHERITANCES.

$204. Property Subject to Inheritance Tax.

All property within the jurisdiction of this state, and any interest therein, whether belonging to the inhabitants of this state or not, and whether tangible or intangible, which shall pass by will or by the statutes of inheritance of this or any other state, or by deed, grant, sale or gift made in contemplation of the death of the grantor or donor, or by deed, grant, sale or gift made or intended to take effect in possession or in enjoyment after the death of the death of the grantor or donor to any person in trust or otherwise, shall, for the use of the state, be subject to a tax as provided for in section two of this act, after the payment of all debts owing by the decedent at the time of his death, the local and state taxes due from the estate prior to his death, and a reasonable sum for funeral expenses, court costs, including cost of appraisement made for the purpose of assessing the inheritance tax, the statutory fees of executors, administrators or trustees, and no other sum, but said debts shall not be deducted unless the same are allowed or established within the time prvoided by law, unless otherwise ordered by the judge or court of the proper county, and all administrators, executors and trustees, and any such grantee under a conveyance, and any such donee under a gift, made during the grantor's or

donor's life, shall be respectively liable for all such taxes to be paid by them, with lawful interest until the same shall have been paid. The inheritance tax shall be and remain a lien on such estate from the death of the decedent until paid. (L. '07, $1, p. 499.)

Tax commission to enforce law: $159, supra.

Legacies and inheritance are but creatures of the law, and natural subjects for legislative control, in the absence of constitutional prohibition : State r. Clark, 30 Wash. 439.

The act is not invalid by reason of exempting some estates and laying proportional taxes on others, since the charges provided for are upon the passing of the estate by succession and are not a tax upon property, and hence do not conflict with Art. 7, §§1, 2 and 5, Const., which require all property to be taxed uniformly according to its value in money: State v. Clark, 30 Wash. 439.

The exemption from the provisions of the act of sums below $10,000 when the estate passes to direct heirs and kindred is not invalid as violating the constitutional requirement of equality in taxation, for the reason that it does not extend the same exemption to devises to collateral heirs or strangers to the blood, since there is no inequality provided among members of the same class, and such rule of equality does not forbid a liberal classification for purposes of taxation: Id.

Where a resident of the state of Maine died, leaving esatte there and in this state, and his will was probated there, and all legacies to collateral heirs and strangers to the blood and all debts were, by order of the probate court in Maine paid out of the estate situated in that state, leaving the property in this state to be divided between his widow and son under the residuary clause in the will, the estate in the state of Washington is not chargeable with the increased inheritance tax upon legacies to collateral heirs and strangers to the blood at the rate of 3 and 6 per cent.; since comity requires that full faith and credit be given to the proceedings in the probate court in Maine, ordering those legacies to be paid out of the estate within its jurisdiction and under its control, and such order is conclusive on the courts of this state; and since the inheritance tax is to be deducted from the legacies and paid by the legatees, and the executor in this state has no opportunity to collect the same from the legatees chargeable therewith: In re Clark's Estate, 37 Wash. 671.

The title of this act, which is confined to the taxation of "inheritances," is sufficiently broad to include a tax on the right of succession by will as well as by operation of law; since 'inheritance" is commonly so employed in this connection: In re White's Estate, 42 Wash. 360.

$205. Rate of Levy.

The inheritance tax shall be and is to be levied on all estates subject to the operation of this act on all sums above the first $10,000.00, where the same shall pass to or for the use of the father, mother, husband, wife, lineal descendant, adopted child, or the lineal descendant of an adopted child, one (1) per centum. On all sums not exceeding the first fifty thousand dollars, of three per centum, where such estate passes to collateral heirs to and including the third degree of relationship, and to six per