The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-25 00:00:00

EVENING-,

THE INCOME AND PROPERTY TAX.
There is no doubt that the cornet principle of
taxation is, that every one should contribute to the
y early expenditure of the country in a fixed propor-
tion to the amount of property in his possession
during that year. That is the position very correctly
laid down by Mr. William Farr, in his tvidenco,
.just published, before the Select Committee on the
Income and Property Tax. A moment's refi,ction
will be sufficient to show that it is is the
highest
degree unjust to exact the same sum in the way of
taxation from two men, one of whom derives an
income from an estate in fee or from money in the
funds, and the other whose income is a profes-
sional one or a short annuity. Let the tax be levied
on the value of the property, no matter what that
property may be—land in fee or for a term of
years,
houses, a post in Somerset-house or in the Treasury,
skill in healing human disorders, or in playing
on the
fiddle. We care not from what source the value may
proceed, EO it is value. Let each man contribute in pro-
portion to the amount of that value in his possession.
Now, what better test of the value of property can
be taken than the price it will fetch in market overt ?
It is easy enough to ascertain the value of each man's
interest in real and personal estate ; it is also a Earn-
ciently simple task to determine the capitalised value
of any income derived from skill or industry. As
the best illustration of our meaning, and at the same
tons method of levying the income-tax, we would
time as the severest comment upon the present iniqui-
submit the following figures to the consideration of
our readers. They will serve to show the sums for
which such annuities rents, estates, and securities as
are there set forth would sell. It is really difficult
to see, with such calculations as the following before
us, why we should not all be taxed according to our
real, and not our imaginary means. We copy
proceedings of
the assessment from the reported
the Select Committee on the Income and Property
Tax :

S.
" A has 10001. a year in Long Annuities 6,875
B has 1,0001. a year in Consols at par 33,333
C has 1,000/. a year from land worth 30
years' purchase
••• ". .. 30,000
of 1,000/. a
" 1) has 1,0001. a year from land, during his
'Life • • • *'• • ... 16,667
year, 16,666
" F has houses returning, in current rents,
" E has
atflt!eerretivl
eersdieoantho fofp rents,...
1,0001. a year... ••••
,„ 16,000"
A professional income is, probably, much inferior in
value even to the lowest interest in the above assess-
ment. As is very properly stated in the report of the
Committee, the highest possible point at which en
income of this sort can be estimated is to place it
among life annuities. As we all know it is, in point
of fact, something much inferior. There are the
contingencies of ill health and fashion. The fashion-
able physician of to-day is the nobody of to-morrow.
The barrister who has sunk a considerable capital in
subsistence, education, and protracted preparation for
his profession, and had already begun to realize some
fruits from all his anxieties, toil, and self-denial, finds
himself suddenly thrown back upon the world, not
from any fault of his own, but because changes have
been introduced into the administration of the law.
Then there must be taken into account the deductions
made for life insurance, and other similar provisions
against sickness and death. How can any assessment
be fair and equitable which not only strikes at the
realized property of two men, but then proceeds
to levy a further toll upon the transitory income
of one, while the other goes free for the simple
reason that he has none which can be affected
by such an impost ? Dr. Chambers or Sir Benjamin
Brodie buy lands and estates like their neigh-
bours, and are subjected to similar taxation in every
respect. The same thing happens if they invest in
the funds. Their investments are realized values.
Any 11. they receive from their patients is a simple
11. ; nothing more. Any 11. from their landed es-
tate or from the funds represents 301. besides itself,
and yet seven-pence in the pound is deducted from
each. Seven-pence is deducted from the 311, and
seven-pence from the 11. ; and this is justice !

What we have said of course apples strictly to
professional incomes, but it will also bear upon all
incomes derived from trade, manufactures; and com-
merce. First, the capital invested must make a suit-
able return ; then in good years an insurance must
be paid against bad years ; then the merchant or
manufacturer is entitled to wages for his own solici-
tude and superintendence ; then he must insure
against the dropping in of his own life ; finally, there
is the net profit from the business, whatever that may
be. The Chancellors of the Exchequer, however from
Mr. Pitt's time downwards, have refused to
take notice of this analysis of an income.
They consider the unstable and transitory income
we have just described to be precisely identical
with that of the landowner or fundholder. No
allowance is made for the vicissitudes of commerce in
the case of the mercantile man, any more than the
changes of fashion or the failure of health in the case
of his professional fellow taxpayer. All must dance
according to the same tune, and march in the same
step, whether Mr. Pitt or Sir Robert Peel, Sir Chas.
Wood or Mr. Disraeli, be the fiscal fugleman. As it
was in the year 1798, so it is in the year 1852 ; but
so will it not be much longer. The anomalies we
have named, which constitute indeed the gross and
crying iniquity of the tax according to its present
method of assessment, are not the only ones which
might be signalised. We see it set forth in the very
interesting evidence given before this Committee, that
the whole of the tax is paid by about 350,000 persons,
and that if the operation of the tax descended
to annual incomes of 501., there would be four
times as many taxpayers. Thus, every taxpayer
d during the sharp pinch
pays not only for himself bat for three others,
which
er a i
arrangement of of much the same cha-
racter
of the Irish famine namely, that every English
family should be required to receive—gratuitously,
ra 1:
tahne
of course—two Irishmen as parlour boarders. It is
bad enough to have to pay taxes for oneself, but
it is cruel to have to pay for others. The minority
is fleeced that the majority may go free. We will
venture, at this point, to quote a few lines from the
report :—" The farmers occupying large farms PaY
their own tax and also the tax that the farmers on
rents of 2991. a-year or less in England, and 4191.
a-year or less in Scotland, ought to pay. The person
who has 1501. a-year from a trade or profession is
taxed, while the owner of 1491. land or
a-year from
money in the funds is exempt , the landowners of
England and Scotland, in fact, pay for the protection
of the property of the landowners of Ireland, who are
resident there or on the continent."
If there be any thing which could add to our
aggravation in the midst of this injustice, it is
the full conviction that to wish sincerely for the
remedy is to discover it. We find that a very
simple method of assessment has been proposed
by a number of competent actuaries, and has re-
ceived the approbation of the committee. It is,
that the tax should be assessed "at one uniform
rate upon all kinds of property—that is, upon the
present capitalized value of industrial incomes, which
are called inherent property, as well as on all exter-
nal property, whether personal or real. Even .r.
John Mil!, who takes a somewhat more discursive
view of the question, inasmuch as he admits intolal.
account not only the comparative means of the contri-
butors, but also their comparative wants, and w."
holds that equalit-, of taxation consists in demanding
from •
all contributors an equal sacrifice of their enjoy;
meats, is driven to admit that he would tax perm9nen
i
and temporary incomes according to a different
scale.
There
•,s nut, in point of fact, a single argument
is
a moment~
au equalization of the assessment which
worth
ernent's attention, except the difficulty of
f this sort,
providing a suitable
remedy. In a matter o
stood
we care not if all the philosopher's in Enropt
to
against us. It needs no great stretch of intellect
perceive that the income tax as at present
rst class,
Under-
stood, is a graduated t t -of the worst property- ax word
and -.n ther a graduated property-tax is but a-o for gpoli t. 'is
a ton—it the last resort of revolutionary
finance
whenen revolution is on the eva of bankruptcy.
i —Tinges.

laAden tinsucfaulle
Tuesday
hy
Bx tract from MONT BLANC.
Yesterday by a party of five travellers.
miserable
el) morning. T_ i_l eo wea-
therd
atttetre,mdpatt
to Cahsacmenoduni, Augustntoianel Sew: —a 8
and 'as b°en generally very unfavourable, but M n ay
night, andpre-
crestfallenraln .
chin fur the ascent. he guide's prognosticated a
about a
adviceThuo'clock, bu insisted on starting about ten o'clock yestt r-
Tp
precession,
s 5
io crossed t
hi :at
hatehreas
nal
adt tesei
ur nrii ou,
desnie t
13 on to •
t6O veral of
torrents, reg
Boisson
about s in Bt.. etY, and reached
_ • h,all-past five o'clock. Sere they passed a
quesnocveerutfutrhnuedro
re-
peatedly dpluyi;
ratherhi the v'll
reac mg i age
noon, Chamouni is crowded with vwtors, and the
garatest difficulty is experienced in getting anything like
thi bed.
The weather has been, at the 6811° time, any-
thing but Pleasant. The road between the village and
returned this morning in
tlnenehes has become very daogeroug from the storms.
tho
broken
brid",es have been carried away by the
twit Isaorracta)r:r.eiargye:orimoamsutriaaist.innAhaeshabre.46enbarnec-
shop-ed,
P and the nerves of the lady tourists have
luads t h
awl, i .0( I I
beennear
ebLatitsutphOebuypcehuoeptslu,erirsnutincl
torrent, and
enaosnuedi
one
Young lady was muchg hurt;
Loirn ie. t 0 pour
A in and the Sardinian Government has re-
-1 1 in 1848."
• g-''''''d all the guides under the old regulations,

principalrito7
i .:entions
Sift a the
giraili"Y subscriptions for the Purchase of a suitable testi-
RrisGin tlllellcEol-o;t7vrroft3Se orwthUrmliilonegrlanmdeanreicnollect-
their to he Presented to Sir George Grey, as a mark of
t , .tregard
Le,trrdi Y; l'il Right Hon. Baronet is at present upon a visit to
to his high personal character, and political in-
.r. ! anmure in the north ; and we believe that his present
rusntary honours, but to seek the quiet of the country, and
in all likelihood to tour on the Continent, for the
establishment of make a
are, not to offer himself as a candidate for Parlia-
,. Mercury. his health, which is not strong.—Leeds