Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-06


 The tax officers in France collect the neces- sary data for the preparation of the tax rolls | sometime in January About March l every l occupant of house apartment receives | notice that his taxes for the coming year are | assessed at such a figure, the amount of his | personal tax, and his license, if any, being | separately specified. If he has any objection | to make opportunity is given him of doing so. Toward the end of March each one is | notified that he must commence paying his taxes within eight days from the service of | such notice. The taxes may be paid in | monthly installments if the taxpayer so de- sires, and we need hardly say that the mass of the people are glad to profit by this be- neficent provision of the law.
 For the convenience of payment the city l is divided into numerous tax districts, and | the system is perfect that payment may | usually be made and receipt obtained within l five minutes after entering the office; and, | of course, if the taxpayer prefers to do so, he can pay the whole of his taxes for the year at once or in semi-annual or quarterly payments
 The theory which underlies the French system of taxation is that the rent or rental value of the premises occupied by the tax payer as 8 residence is proportioned to the amount of his property and this is general y speaking a reasonable assumption. At all events, it possesses this great advantage namely, that the rent payable by every citi- zen may be readily ascertained, while the dLnOuuG OI HIS nleanS ChunOC, II nS CuOOScS to conceal it. Under this system every in- habitant of the city, except the very poor, is obliged to contribute his share toward the expenses of the government, and consequent ly such share is approximately moderate. few figures will serve to show how heavy is the burden imposed upon an honest tax payer in New York, as compared with that which is borne by man possessed of the same means in Paris Let us assume that the property of such an individual If out of business, consists of personal estate, such as railway bonds and stocks of the value of $100, ,O0O, that the net annual income there
 from is s., ,000, and that the rent paid by such individual amounts to one fifth of his income equal to $1 ,OO0, or that, being en- gagged in business, his average annual profits enable him to occupy an apartment of the same rental value. In Paris the party in question would have to pay contributions nao6iLie9es about 400 francs, or, say, $SO, or, including his door and window tax, which he pays through his landlord, say, $9O. If en- gagged in business practising a profession he would have to pay 8 license tax or oatente, which varies from 100 to 1000 francs (we are speaking, of course, of the mass of the people, and not of merchants or companies occupying very extensive and costly premis- es, whose ?odte1ate may run up to several thousand francs and whose taxes are payable out of the profits of their business, and not out of the income derived from their invest ments Such householder thus pays on an average, say l, ,OO0 francs as the total of his direct taxes. Supposing him to pay the sum of 1000 francs indirectly in the shape of octroi duties on the provisions consumed by himself and family in the course of the year (and this allowance we consider very Hbe- ral one), we find the total amount of his an nual taxes, direct and indirect, to be, say 2,O00 francs, or $400 while in New York person similarly situated would have to pay (if he made an honest and full declaration of his property) about ? 6.1O per cent. on his principal, making, in the present case, his tax amount to $2, 600. Even if we assume that the Parisian pays an additional $2OO per year on an average in the way of succession and other exceptional taxes, his contributions to the expenses of the government would be at the utmost only $6oO in place of the S2,- 600 levied upon the unfortunate New Yorker.