TAXATION: Gift Horses

Tax-hungry New Jersey has a propensity for pulling the teeth of gift horses (see p. 73). One victim was opulent Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (assets: $2,044,635,000). Hit with a $300,000,000 assessment on its intangible property by Newark in 1935, the company got it reduced to $50,000,000, paid a $2,000,000 personal property tax, promptly moved its books and records to Linden. There town fathers slapped on a $75,000,000 "omitted assessment." Standard paid a $1,000,000 tax and began looking for still another home.

Two years ago it found one: neat, elm-shaded Flemington (pop.: 2,700),...

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