Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/617

 TAXES 589 substituted. The income tax, however just in theory, has always proved unequal from the impossibility of obtaining accurate returns, and unpopular from the necessity it involved of prying into the business and private concerns of the people. Great use has however been made of it in England, where one has been imposed ever since 1842, undergoing in the mean time 18 alterations, the rate ranging from I6d. in the pound to 2d. In some tax laws incomes are graded, and those are taxed least which are derived from property otherwise taxed, or which for any reason it is thought should not be taxed as high as others. In America an income tax has always been excep- tional. Excise taxes are laid in great variety, and in some countries produce the larger por- tion of the revenue. The heaviest are usually those on the manufacture of liquors ; these have sometimes been made so heavy as to furnish strong inducements to evasion, and by various ingenious contrivances, combined usually with corruption of the revenue officers, the heavy tax is made less productive than a light one. Excise taxes are also laid on employments in various forms, on the profits of business and of corporations, &c. A succession tax, or a tax on the privilege of succeeding to an inheritance or to a testamentary gift, has been customary. When the succession is collateral, or out of the immediate family of the deceased, it comes in diminution of a new capital and will not be burdensome ; but when paid by the immediate family of the deceased, the burden is more felt, because that from which the tax is taken was, for all purposes of comfort and enjoyment, the property of the family before. Customs taxes are in some countries next in productiveness to excise taxes, while in others they are much more productive. They are favorite taxes with governments because they are easy of collection, and because the people submit to them more willingly than to either the direct cr the indirect internal taxes. They are ob- jectionable because of the strong invitation they hold out to smuggling, which is greater in proportion as the tax is heavy, and also be- cause of the temptation they offer for discrimi- nating legislation for the benefit of particular occupations or to build up monopolies. Pro- tective taxation is usually laid in this form. Either an excise or a customs tax will be pro- ductive in proportion as the article taxed is one in general use, and as the government suc- ceeds in collecting the tax and preventing eva- sions. An export tax is not often laid, it be- ing thought impolitic as tending to diminish exportation and production, and also because, to the extent that it seems to transfer to pur- chasers in other countries the burdens of the government imposing it, the tendency is to in- vite retaliatory legislation. A property tax by value has very generally been regarded in America as the most equal and just of all taxes. Practically it falls mainly on real property, from the difficulty of discovering and listing personalty except in its most tangible forms. Stamp taxes are laid in various forms : on manufactured articles, bills of exchange, checks, deeds, contracts, and other instruments of busi- ness or traffic, on the process of courts, letters of administration, &c., and sometimes on news- papers. No taxes are so easily, cheaply, or conveniently collected as these, and when levied on articles selected with a view to a fair dis- tribution of the burden, none could be more just. In the United States they are generally abandoned except for the purposes of the excise on manufactures. The enjoyments and amuse- ments of the wealthier classes are sometimes taxed specially, the taxes being imposed in re- spect to their servants, horses, carriages, dogs, plate, &c. The interest of money is sometimes taxed specially ; so are dividends of corpora- tions and joint stock companies ; so sometimes are indentures of apprenticeship, and even mar- riages. Many light taxes are laid for regula- tion merely, usually in the form of license fees. A principle generally accepted is, that arti- cles of luxury should be selected for taxation to the relief of articles of prime necessity. This tends to cast the burden upon those best able to bear it, and at the same time leaves every man to tax himself, since his purchases are made of choice and not from necessity. But this by no means has the effect at all times to make the weight of taxes fall upon the wealthier classes. Mr. E. D. Baxter estimates the taxes paid by the manual labor classes of Great Britain on alcoholic drinks and to- bacco at Gj 1 ^ per cent, of their income, and those paid by the upper and middle classes on the same articles at 2-^- per cent. The offi- cial figures of European budgets convey no adequate idea of the relative taxation in the respective countries, because in one country they may embrace the taxes levied for many purposes which in another will be provided for by taxes not brought into the correspond- ing budget. Furthermore, no adequate returns are anywhere made of the items of local taxa- tion, which constitute a large proportion of the aggregate taxes. These local taxes in Great Britain are estimated to exceed 30,000,000. Any comparison between the taxation of the United States and that of the European coun- tries would also be likely to mislead, unless it brought into view the taxation of the several states as well as that of -the nation. Taxation in the United States ranges itself under the three heads of federal, state, and municipal. The first is laid almost wholly in the form of customs and excise duties. The figures for the fiscal year 1875 were : Customs duties $157,167,722 00 Taxes on distilled liquors... $52.081,991 12 " on fermented liquors. 9,144,39166 " on tobacco 87.303.670 06 Stamp taxes 6,088,590 42 Taxes on banks 4,096,860 87 Penalties and other items. . . 1,138,700 98 Total internal taxes .... - 109,849,205 11 Totaloftaxes $267,016,92711