The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-07-17


Tho Income Tax-why Net Abolish ~
Several journals have lately published lists
Of the income returns Of certain wealthy citi-
zens. These returns are In many cases such
as would stagger the faith Of Quetelet and
Buckle in the modern science Of statistics.
It has been said that figures, like dead men,
never lie; but the very reverse would appear
to be the truth il the figures relate to returns
of this kind. A personal income tax Is odious
in all countries, and particularly so in the
United States In this free country less
offensive method Of meeting the expenditures
of the government should be devised. 1t is
here regarded as 50 manifestly inconsistent
with the spirit of our institutions that scarcely
any man scruples to evads its provisions. The
fact Is notorious that where this tax is levied
on the sworn statement Of individuals 1t fails
to come up to the true amount. The dis
crepancy between return by the taxpayer Of
millions for one year and zero for another is
too glaring not to provoke public attention.
Moreover, only government employees and
salaried men really have to pay the full
amount In the case Of the former the tax Is
levied on their monthly salaries and deducted
from sums due to them. It is, in fact, COL
iected in advance. Men not in government
employ are tempted to keep no account Of
their income and to forget conveniently what
they receive. In their case no proof of fraud
exists. It is not uncommon for men living in
fashionable style, keeping equipages and
several servants, to return to the assessors an
income of but few hundred dollars Those
who ought to pay most escape scot free, while
men whose incomes are known to be mode
rate are heavily overburdened. There Is no
way of remedyiug this inequality or Of collect
ing the government dues fairly and fully
The income tax is levied on all incomes ex
ceeding one thousand dollars. Take the case Of
an average family, which is estimated to consist
of FIVE persons, and the income payable by the
father of the family is only two hundred dollars
per head. Now the necessary expenses Of an
individual in these times of high prices and
deprecated currency are much greater than
this sum; so that the tax on income, so-called,
is really a tax on expenditures. In other
words, it is tax on what has been expended
for the necessaries of life-a tax which be-
comes, in the strong language of Adam Smith,
"a curse equal to the barrenness Of the soil
and the inclemency of the heavens" 1t must
thus be classed with those taxes which neces-
sarily fall either on wages or on profits. In
proportion as they diminish wages they must
equally diminish the comforts and enjoyments
of the largest and most important class in
society, spreading pauperism, misery and
crime throughout the country; and, as an able
writer on political economy declares, ''they
cannot diminish profits without occasioning
corresponding diminution Of the power to ac-
cumulate capital, and without also stimulating
its transfer to those countries in which taxa
ton is less oppressive" In the United States,
where we can boast of boundless extent of
fertile and unappropriated land, and where no
feudal privileges fetter the employment of in
dustry or retard the accumulation of wealth,
such taxes on the necessaries of life are at
present less injurious than in the smaller and
more densely populated countries of Europe.
But even here the rapid increase of our popu-
lation and the steady narrowing Of our unoc-
cupied territory will ultimately make such
taxes grievous burden. The fragrant injustice
Of an income tax which can be 30 unequally
administered that the income returns of half
dozen wealthy citizens in New York exceed
the total amount of the income returns of New
Orleans is already patent. The income tax
will expire by its own limitation next year,
but why should not the coming Congress
abolish it at once?