The state tax department, hereinafter in this title referred to as the “department” , created and established by an act entitled “An act to establish a state tax department and to define its powers and duties; and vesting therein all the powers and duties now devolved by law upon the state board of taxes and assessment except those relating to the review, hearing and determination of all appeals concerning the assessment, collection, apportionment or equalization of taxes,” approved April twenty-eighth, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-one (L.1931, c. 336, p. 823), is hereby continued.