Maximillian, Emperor of Mexico., February 1, 1867

Maximillian, Emperor of Mexico.

In virtue of what our under secretary of the treasury in charge of the despatch has manifested, and after hearing our council of ministers, we decree:

Article 1. To meet the estimates of the public administration during the present year, every capital of one thousand dollars and upwards, whether employed or to be employed in any branch of industry, shall pay a contribution of one per cent.

Art. 2. This contribution shall be paid in two equal instalments—the first within the first six days, exclusive of feast days, reaching from the day following the publication of this law at any place, and the second fifteen days after the completion of the first-named term, within the six following days.

Art. 3. This contribution is due upon and is to be collected where the property is situated; but in the capital of Mexico and points of the valley it shall be collected from the tax-payers who reside therein, although they may hold their property in other departments; and the obligation which this loan imposes upon the owners of capital shall, in their cases, be discharged by their managers, whether under the name of administrators or on account of infirmity, absence, minority, legal interdiction, sequestration, partnership, or usufruct of the owner.

Art. 4. This contribution, which is imposed once for all, shall be exacted in the following manner: That assessed upon rural and urban property shall be collected upon the value at which these have been appraised to the end of December of the last year, just passed, for the payment of the contribution on real estate in the last four months ending with the said December. For capital employed in mercantile pursuits the collection shall be made by triplicating the quota which every person ought to have paid in one year for a simple contribution, and not double, according to the last qualifications under which the payments of the last four months of the year 1866 were made. The branches of business opened the present year will be assessed by analogy with others of equal kind, should they not be already classified. An amount equal to one year’s payment, according to the existing assessment, shall be collected upon industrial establishments. For mining concerns and others difficult to be classified, the collection shall be made upon the manifestation which the owners or their representatives shall have given in writing within the term fixed in article two, in the intelligence that if, after payment, it shall result that the truth has been concealed in the manifestation, either by diminishing the amount of capital or making it appear less by any other method, the facts shall be exposed at the collectors’ offices, and double the amount, or two per cent., shall be charged to those who have presented false manifestations.

Art. 5. There are no exceptions to the payment of this contribution, not even in favor of those mercantile or industrial companies which by any right whatever may have been excepted in former cases.

Art. 6. Proprietors of rural or urban estates upon which mortgages exist are allowed to deduct from the amount one per cent, of the amount of the total value of his payments without injury to the especial contracts which they may have entered into.

Art. 7. In this capital the payment of the contribution to which the present law refers shall be made in the general direction of rents, to which effect an especial section is established, charged exclusively with the collection and delivery of the products into the general treasury.

Art. 8. In towns and places beyond the capital the collection of this impost will be taken in the offices of direct contributions.

Art. 9. The collectors of this contribution and their agents will employ the economico-coactive authority to make effective the collection within the term indicated, and will be assisted by the public authorities in all cases where force is required.

Art. 10. Those who shall have paid any sums of money under the last forced loan imposed by the government, with guarantee of a branch of the public treasury for its return, shall be paid from the funds of the present contribution, crediting them in the amount they have paid or returning them what may appear to their credit, according to what corresponds to each individual.

Art. 11. All those who, from any motive soever, shall delay or neglect to present their returns during the days named as the first term, shall suffer the penalty of paying double the amount of this impost on the qualification which the respective officers shall make, and without a right to future reclamation.

Art. 12. Our ministry of the treasury is charged with the execution of this decree.

MAXIMILIAN.