The purpose of this dissertation was to study the property tax and property tax exemptions in the United States and in Indiana. The main body of this dissertation, however, deals with the State of Indiana. The method of the study is primarily legalistic: the Constitution of Indiana, the laws of Indiana, and relevant decisions of the Indiana courts provide the major portion of the research material. These constitutional and statutory provisions were considered as to the manner in which they were interpreted by the judicial authorities of the State of Indiana.Taxes and taxation are areas of great concern in the United States today. As this concern has increased, more and more attention has been paid to the property tax. This tax provides much of the revenue of county and municipal governments in the United States and plays a very important part in our national revenue system.This tax has been severely castigated by numerous critics who have studied it over the years, with some of the strongest criticisms aimed at exemptions, which have been made from the taxes. Every state in the Union has provided for at least some categories of exemption, with most allowing fairly large amounts of property to be exempted. These categories of exemptions include the property of: the federal government, states, local governments, churches, charitable organizations, veterans, and others.Very much the same thing has been done in Indiana. The State Constitution gives the legislature the power to grant exemptions from the property tax through law. This has been done in all the categories listed above, as well as some others.The scope of a statute can be expanded or contracted trememdously by judicial interpretation. Judges can make new law through their decisions or greatly change the scope of laws already written.Indiana courts have interpreted the tax exemption statutes numerous times over the years. In the cases brought before them the courts have made certain rules to guide those who are applying for exemption. These rules have also let the taxing authorities know the meaning and scope of the tax exemption statutes.The courts in construing these statutes have read them in a strict manner and have not, as a rule, expanded their meaning through interpretation.The courts have held that all exemptions are a departure from the principle that all real estate should be taxed and construed them in a narrow manner. The courts have also considered them in the light of whether or not there is a public benefit involved.In looking at the numerous exemptions that have been granted by state law, the courts determine if this has been done under a constitutional grant of power. If there is a constitutional basis for the statute, the courts than look at other aspects of the law.The courts in Indiana have not contributed to the increase in the amount of tax exempt property in the state. This has been done by the State Legislature. The courts have construed the statutes in the way that they felt was intended by the legislature. If the amount of tax exempt property is to be decreased, it will have to be done by the legislative body of the state and not the courts.

Issued also as thesis, Columbia University. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [100]-104).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1929. / Vita. Published also as Teachers college, Columbia university, Contributions to education, no. 349. Bibliography: p. 123-124.

Akademisk avhandling--Uppsala. / Summary in German. Scandinavian university books. Includes bibliographical references.

Immunities in the Constitutional System of Czech Republic The thesis Immunities in the Constitutional System of Czech Republic examines the enshrinement of the immunity of selected public officials in domestic legal system. The essay describes the objective state of legislation as well as the development of academic view of the system of exceptions and the attitude of the persons, in whose favor the element works. After a short introduction, whose purpose is to outline some possible opinions and generally believed myths about parliamentary immunity; the thesis explains some terms related to the institute - material immunity, procedural immunity, and procedural exemption. The main body of the paper reviews the individual types of immunities in detail. The first chapter discusses the Members of Parliament - the immunity of the Deputies and the Senators. It shows the evolution of the constitutional basis to the institute, presents the current form of Article in the Constitution with a numerous cases when the immunity of an MP was removed by the Parliament. It also deals with the connection of the constitutional articles to the rules of procedure of the Chambers. The thesis describes selected problematic aspects of the institute, and demonstrates a number of those with historical and present court...

The presented thesis addresses selected questions within the topic of public tender competitions, with focus on defining the term "public tender" and defining different types of public tenders. The thesis attempts to explain current legal environment of public tenders with regard to the amendment which has entered into force on September 15, 2010, and which has altered certain establishments of the Public Tenders Act. Alternations occurred also in the establishments focused on in this thesis; and because there has been no statutory interpretation or judicature yet, this thesis attempts to shed light on the implications of the amendment on the selected establishments. Definition of the term "public tender" is crucial from the viewpoint of full compliance of the Public Tenders Act; therefore, definition of the term along with its proprieties is one of the core topics of this thesis. Connected to this topic is also the question of proper definition of the term contracting authority, and assortment of subjects into correct contracting authority categories. This assessment is deemed fundamental for public tender competition. The thesis attempts to analyze situations where contracting authority specification is ambiguous. The case of ČEPRO, a.s., was chosen as a practical example to demonstrate such...

This thesis is focused on legal institute of immunity in Czech system of law. It deals especially with the legislative development in institute of immunity and contemporary legislation, but it is focused on judicial practice as well. The aim of this thesis is to present some controversial issues, which appears within the application of immunity and to analyse the judicial practice of the Czech courts. This thesis is composed of introduction, four chapters and conclusion. The first chapter is theoretical and tries to define the institute of immunity according to the legal theory. This chapter introduces the origin of the institute of immunity and its differentiation at the same time. The essential part of this thesis is the second chapter, which concerns with the parliamentary immunity, and is divided into five subchapters. The subchapter 2.1. deals with the legislative development of the parliamentary immunity and presents all the bills. The aim of these bills was to regulate, particularly to narrow the parliamentary immunity. In the subchapter 2.2. is analysed new concept of indemnity, specifically concept of recourse, vote, body of the Assembly of Deputies or Senate and speech, with regard to judicial practice of the Czech courts. The subchapter 2.3. provides the transgressional immunity of...

The tax exemptions granted to financial institutions like Subchapter S banks and credit unions cost billions of dollars to the government. The dissertation investigates the effect of tax exemption on competitiveness, performance and portfolio risk of credit unions and Subchapter S banks. The methodologies include difference in differences estimation, univariate and multivariate analysis. The first essay entitled “The tax exemption to Subchapter S banks: who gets the benefit?” investigates the effect of tax exemption to Subchapter S banks on stakeholders and on job creation. Specifically, we investigate the effect of adoption of Subchapter S status on the four stakeholders of the banks: the customers of the bank, the employees of the bank, the owners of the bank and the government. The results indicate that the tax exemptions to Subchapter S banks do not create new jobs, and that the owners of the bank are the sole beneficiary of the tax exemptions since there is a significant increase in bank’s return on equity after it adopts the Subchapter S status. The second essay entitled “A comparison of credit unions and Subchapter S banks: who shares higher tax benefits with customers?” examines whether credit unions are doing a better job of sharing the tax benefit with its customers. The results indicate that the credit union members do not receive the benefit in terms of lower loan rates, higher deposit rates or lower service charges. The findings also indicate that tax exemptions have been directed to support inefficient operations. The third essay entitled “Asset quality comparison between credit unions and Subchapter S banks” compares the asset quality of for-profit Subchapter S banks with not-for-profit credit unions. The results indicate that credit unions have better asset quality, but Subchapter S banks are superior in utilizing assets and generating higher net interest margin.

Background: To prevent the spread of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD’s), school-aged children in the United States are required to receive vaccinations. In certain states, parents have the option to exempt their child from becoming vaccinated due to medical, religious, or personal reasons. The purpose of this research was to identify which states require mandatory vaccination education prior to granting vaccine exemptions and to identify the various types of required vaccination education.Methods: Immunization program managers from states requiring parents seeking exemptions to receive mandatory vaccination education were asked a series of open-ended questions. The interviews were conducted via telephone. The education-related questions identified: 1) which states require mandatory education prior to granting vaccine exemptions; 2) delivery methods for education; 3) standardization of materials; 4) renewal and evaluation of education; 5) the greatest obstacles to providing education; and 6) use of immunization registries to track vaccination education.Results: Ten states reported mandatory vaccination education requirements prior to granting vaccine exemptions. Three methods of vaccination education delivery were identified: printed material, face-to-face education, and/or online technology-driven education. Seven states have standardized vaccination education and use state exemption rates as a means to evaluate the education. Half of states required parents to renew vaccination education, but the time period for renewals varied from state-to-state. There were two general obstacles to delivering vaccination education, namely, lack of resources and lack of parent involvement.Conclusion: Parental education regarding vaccines impacts parents’ decisions to vaccinate their children. The method of delivering mandatory vaccination education varies greatly between states. Each method for vaccination education delivery has inherent advantages and disadvantages, indicating the need for further research to determine which method of education delivery is most effective. A combination of delivery methods may, in fact, be the best option. Identifying the most effective delivery method for vaccination education, as well as the most optimal time period for renewing the education, will assist other states developing mandatory vaccination education materials.