Page:Women and the State.djvu/15

13 TAXATION. It is a common belief that women have no ability to understand finance, yet, strange to say, they have more to do with the spending of money in the community than men. The working man, for instance, hands his wages to his wife, who has the task of seeing that the money is spent to the best advantage. So it comes to pass that, whether women do or do not excel at mathematics, they understand from practical experience what money is, and what the spending of it involves. For the same reason they acquire a practical acquaintance with taxation.

Taxation in a modern community comes in two ways. Apart from municipal taxation (rates on property), it may come directly, in the form of land or income or amusement taxation, or it may come indirectly, as the bulk of it does, through the Customs. Direct taxation is something which the housekeeper readily understands, for it means the pa3dng to the (Government of a definite sum of money from the family income. Indirect taxation is not so apparent, but it is just as real. On almost all imported articles there is a duty fixed which may range from a small percentage of its value to a high one. This duty may be exacted because of a policy of Protection of native industries, or as a Revenue producing impost, the latter being imposed in Free Trade countries as well as in Protectionist ones. Customs duties are paid in the first place by the importers, but they are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices for goods; and the housewife pays these duties when she buys the goods upon which duties have been levied.