Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/296

 The next section makes the tax a lien upon the property until it is paid. The tax is to be collected by the controller of the county. Payment within six months gives a discount of 5 per cent.; if it is not made in eighteen months a penalty of 10 per cent. is provided. The controller's fee is 5 per cent. on the first $50,000 of the tax, 3 per cent. on the second $50,000, and 1 per cent. on the rest. The balance of the tax is to be paid into the State Treasury.

A tax of 1 per cent. on the estate should yield from $650,000 to $1,000,000, according to which of the limits on the estimate approaches the real valuation. The controller accordingly would figure on a fee of from $8,000 to $13,000.

It was said at the corporation counsel's office that if it shall be proved that Mr. Gould has left his personal property, especially his railroad interests, in hands of trustees for a term of years, the interest to go to his children, the fact that the estate is in the hands of trustees cannot prevent the state from levying and collecting the inheritance tax.

Said one of the assistant corporation counsels: "If Mr. Gould could by the terms of his will, by deed or gift or otherwise, make such a disposition of his estate as to render the law in such cases nugatory, his children and heirs to the remotest generation, when they came to devise their property, could do the same thing, and the estate would thus be perpetually barred of its rights. I believe that the personal estate that Mr. Gould has left for the benefit of his children, no matter in what form,