The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-09-20
The Income Tax In England--.
The Tax Productive in Pro.
portion to the Elimination
of Rate.

of Rate.
The following article froui the Lon
don times is instructive and interest
ing:
"a paper laid before the House of
Commons just before the close of the
session, on the motion of Mr.. Moi
fatt, contains up to the 9Th of April,
1866, the annual statistics of the in
come tax. This is not the least
interesting of the parliamentary
returns, though it must be allow
ed that it often suggests more inqui-
ries than it answers. In the first
place, it affords US some conception
of the distribution of wealth in the
country. 1t appears that the total
~r, ou-e- of -incorner eho-sed 18th +~,-r
in the year ending April, 1866, was
nearly one hundred and fifty millions.
OF this sum nearly quarter, or more
than twenty seven millions, was fur
nished by incomes of less than f3UO
a year. Moreover, since all returns
below f300 year are subject to an
abatement of eco in assessment, the
real amount OF such modest incomes
is considerably larger than these fig
ures would represent. At the other
end of the scale O total sum of
thirty-three millions is furnished by
incomes above 10000 year. But
the latter sum. again, cannot be ia
ken as representing the whole amount
of these large incomes, as the contri
buttons to the revenue by great land
holders or great fundholders are to
be found in other schedules than d
and E. Taking, however, the divis-
ions laid down in the return, the
largest sum total. or eighteen mil
lions, is returned by persons who en-
joy incomes of between 10000 and
f50,000 a year. But they are close
pressed by the incomes under f2OO
a year, which amount to seventeen
millions. The amount next in mag
nitude is contributed by the fortu-
nate possessors Of more than ESQ,
900 a year. They furnish thirteen
millions Of income for taxation, and
1t may be noticed that since they
are just one hundred and thirty.
three in number, they appear to en-
joy an average of 100000 a year
each.
If we advance by hundreds from
f200 year up to 1000, we find
tnat the number of persons in each
group and the amount returned by
them rapidly diminish, until from be-
ing ten millions for the group be-
tween f200 and f30O, it is only one
million for the group between f900
and f1,000. The amount continues
at q million for every extra hundred
a year up to $4,000. From $4,000
year to $4,000, every additional
f100 year furnishes only Lalf a
million, and the proportionate return
diminishes until We reach $4,000 a
year. 1t appears, in short, that the
great resources of the income tax lie
in-the small incomes under G500 a
year and in the large incomes above
Is, 900. If we look only to the num-
Der of persons who pay the tax, the
smaller class are, Of course, vastly
the more important, but the degree
by which they preponderate is, per
haps, scarcely realized. Out of $751;
ITO tax payers, no less than 2s2,7S6
are taxed on incomes of less than
G200 a year, 313,1S on incomes of
less than ESQ, while the below E1,-
900 year include 332,477. Sched-
ule E, which includes incomes re-
ceived from public offices, furnish a
taxable amount of twenty millions,
and includes lis 5.000persons. There
is similar but more rapid diminu-
ton IN the amounts contributed by
the higher grades OF salary, and, OF
course, there are none of those enor-
nous incomes which we have noticed
in the higher ranks of Schedule D.
1t has always been remarkable
feature in this tax that it becomes
more productive in proportion to the
dimunition Of its rate. This is due
to two causes, which it is difficult to
disentangle. In the first place there
can be no doubt that the returns of
income become more accurate and
more numerous as the burden of the
impost is lessened. Conscience is
notoriously elastic on this point, and
it resumes its natural vigor in pro-
portion a. the pressure on It is re-.