imposed by this article. Any contract or agreement in respect to any mortgage obligation or deed of trust, other than mortgage obligations and deeds of trust executed by corporations, by which the mortgagor shall agree or be bound to pay the tax or any part thereof imposed by this article, shall be usurious and void, and no judgment shall be obtained in any court of this state upon any obligation or mortgage subject to the tax imposed by this article when it shall be made to appear that there has at any time been any agreement that the mortgagor should pay such tax or any part thereof, or that the mortgagor has made any payment in pursuance of any such agreement. § 310. Restriction as to provisional remedies.-No action shall be brought nor shall any proceeding be instituted in any court of this state in respect to the making of any assessment, the col lection of any tax, the recording of any mortgage or other paper or the making or filing of any list referred to in this article, or in respect to the performance of any act herein required of any official, until after a review or decision by the state board of tax commissioners in respect thereto as in this article provided. Nothing in this article shall be construed as impairing the li ability of any officer to any person aggrieved for damages arising out of any illegal or fraudulent act or neglect on the part of such officer. § 311. Expenses of officers.-Recording officers and county treasurers and the chamberlain of the city of New York, shall severally be entitled to receive, all their necessary expenses for the purposes of this act, including printing, advertising, costs of lists, hire of clerks and assistants, being first approved and allowed by the state board of tax commissioners, which shall be retained by them out of the moneys coming into their hands. Recording officers and their deputies shall administer gratuitously any oath required by this statute. Within ten days after this act takes effect, it shall be the duty of each recording officer to submit to the state board of tax commissioners a form of the list aforesaid adapted to the usages of his office, together with an estimate of the cost of preparing and securely binding the same in convenient volumes, and together with an estimate of the probable number of mortgages to be entered therein the first year, and the expense per mortgage of making such entries, and upon approval of the form, as it was proposed or as it may be corrected, by the state board, said recording officer shall forthwith obtain the necessary lists for the first year, so that the work of preparing the same for certification at the time fixed in this article may not be delayed. § 312. Supervisory power of state board of tax commissioners and state comptroller. The state board of tax commissioners shall have general supervisory power over all recording officers in respect of the duties imposed by this article and they may make such rules and regulations for the government of recording officers in respect to the matters provided for in this article as they may deem proper, provided that such rules and regulations shall not be inconsistent with this or any other statute. They shall see that recording officers cause the lists aforesaid to be seasonably prepared and securely bound, and they may prescribe the forms of advertisements, receipts, appeals and other papers and records required by this statute. The state comp troller shall have general supervisory power over all county treas arers and the chamberlain of the city of New York in respect to the duties imposed upon them by this article, and may make such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with this or any other statute, for the government of said county treasurers and chamberlain as he deems necessary and appropriate to secure a due accounting for all taxes and moneys collected ог received pursuant to any provision of this article; and may be represented by counsel before the state board of tax com missioners upon any appeal from the determination of the original recording officer. All recording officers and county treasurers, and the chamberlain of the city of New York, shall furnish such bond, conditioned for the faithful and diligent discharge of the duties required of them respectively by this article, to the people of the state, within such time, with such sureties and in such penal amount, not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, as the state comptroller may prescribe. § 313. Advance payments of taxes. -Any person may at his option at any time present to any county treasurer or to the chamberlain of the city of New York, triplicate statements in a form to be prescribed by the state board of tax commissioners, containing a specific and identifying description of any serial bond or bonds secured by mortgage heretofore or hereafter executed by any corporation and at the same time pay to the county treasurer or chamberlain of the city of New York a tax apon the bond or bonds so described at the rate per year of five mills on the dollar of the principal or par of said bond or bonds for as many years not less than three commencing on the following first day of July as may be desired. A discount for the present payment at the rate of five per centu shall be allowed. The treasurer or chamberlain shall certify upon each triplicate statement in a form to be prescribed by the state board of tax commissioners the date and amount of the payment and the years covered thereby and shall deliver one triplicate to the person making the payment, cause another to be filed in the state comptroller's office, and file the third in an orderly way in his own office. Thereafter, during the years covered by the payment, such bond or bonds and the obligations or indebtedness represented thereby, shall be exempt from all other taxation, in the manner and to the extent only as provided in section two hundred and ninety-two of this article. Executors and trustees, unless expressly prohibited by the will or other instrument creating the trust, shall be deemed to be authorized to avail themselves of this option, for the benefit of the beneficiaries of the estates or trusts which they represent. § 314. Optional payment on prior mortgages.-Any person who is the owner of a mortgage heretofore executed, and subject to taxation under sections one to ninety-four, inclusive, of this act, may at his option at any time present to the recording officer of any county where said mortgage is recorded a triplicate statement, in a form to be prescribed by the state board of tax commissioners, specifying the date of the mortgage, the date of record, the property covered, and the amount secured by said mortgage; one of which statements shall be filed in the office of said recording officer; one of said statements with a copy of the indorsement of filing shall be delivered to the owner of the mortgage, and the other shall be filed with the state board of tax commissioners. And thereafter said debt and obligation for the payment of money secured by said mortgage, together with the mortgage and the property upon which the lien thereof rests, shall be subject to all the provisions of this article with the same force and effect as if the said mortgage had been made, executed, delivered and recorded at a date subsequent to the enactment of this article, and shall thereafter be taxed under the provisions of this article and shall be entitled to the exemption contained in section two hundred and ninety-two. No mortgage which shall be taxable under the provisions of this act shall be assessed for taxes in this state, after the passage of this act, except in the manner and at the time provided in this article, but this article shall not affect any tax levied or any assessment wholly completed at or prior to its passage. The schedule to the mortgage tax article is not printed here. *ARTICLE XV. TAX ON TRANSFERS OF STOCK. Section 315. Amount of tax. 316. Stamps how prepared and sold. 317. Penalty for failure to pay tax. 318. Cancelling stamps; penalty for failure. 320. Illegal use of stamps; penalty. 321. Power of state comptroller. 322. Civil penalty; how recovered. *Added by chap. 241, Laws of 1905. § 315. Amount of tax.-There is hereby imposed and there shall immediately accrue and be collected a tax as herein provided, on all sales, or agreements to sell, or memoranda of sales or deliveries or transfers of shares or certificates of stock in any domestic or foreign association, company or corporation, made after the first day of June nineteen hundred and five, whether made upon or shown by the books of the association, company or corporation, or by any assignment in blank, or by any delivery, or by any paper or agreement or memorandum or other evidence of transfer or sale whether entitling the holder in any manner to the benefit of such stock, or to secure the future payment of money or the future transfer of any stock, on each hundred dollars of face value or fraction thereof, two cents. It is not intended by this act to impose a tax upon an agreement evidencing the deposit of stock certificates as collateral security for money loaned thereon which stock certificates are not actually sold, nor upon such stock certificates so deposited. The payment of such tax shall be denoted by an adhesive stamp or stamps affixed as follows: In case of sale where the evidence of transfer is shown only by the books of the company the stamp shall be placed upon such books; and where the change of ownership is by transfer certificate the stamp shall be placed upon the certificate; and in cases of an agreement to sell or where the transfer is by delivery of the certificate assigned in blank there shall be made and delivered by the seller to the buyer a bill or memorandum of such sale to which the stamp provided for by this article shall be affixed; and every bill or memorandum of sale or agreement to sell before mentioned shall show the date thereof, the name of the seller, the amount of the sale, and the matter or thing to which it refers, and no further tax is hereby imposed upon the delivery of the certificate of stock, or upon the actual issue of a new certificate when the original certificate of stock is accompanied by the duly stamped memorandum of sale. § 316. Stamps how prepared and sold.-Adhesive stamps for the purpose of paying the state tax provided for by this article shall |