The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-06-27
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
ECONOMY OF THf SINGLE TAX.

with, perhaps, the exception of GER
tain licenses and stamp duties, which
may be made almost to collect them
selves, but which Tan be relied on
for only a trivial amount of rev.
enue, tax upon land values can, of all
taxes, be most easily and cheaply col
iected, for land can mot be hidden or
carried off; its value dan be readily as
certained, and the assessment once
made, nothing but leceiver is required
for collection.
And as under all fiscal systems some
part OF the public reFenues is collected
from taxes ON landJ and the machin-
cry for that purpose already exists and
could as well be made to collect all as a
part. the cost of collecting the revenue
now obtained by Other taxes might be
entirely saved by substituting the tax
on land values for all other taxes
What an enormous saving might thus be
made can be inferred from the horde of
officials now engagedli in collecting these
taxes.
This saving would largely reduce the
difference between what taxation now
costs the people and What it yields, but
the substitution of a lax on land values
for all other taxes Would operate to re-
duce this difference iA an even more inn
portant way.
A tax on land valu4s does not add to
prices, and is thus paid directly by the
persons on whom it falls; whereas, all
taxes upon things of unfixed quantity
increase prices, and ih the course of ex-
change are shifted frbm seller to buyer,
increasing as they gol If we impose a
tax upon money loaned, as has been
often attempted, the lender will charge
the tax TO the borrower, and the Dor
rover must pay It or not OBJ
tain the loan. IL the borrower
uses it in his business, he in his
turn must get back the tax from his
customers. or his business becomes un-
profitable. If we impose a tax upon
buildings, the users df buildings must
finally pay for it, for the erection of
buildings viii cease until building rents
become high enough 10 pay the regular
profit and the tax besides. If we inn
pose tax upon manufactures or i'm
ported goods, the manufacturer or inn
porter will charge it IN a higher price
to the jobber, the jotlber to the retailer,
and the retailer tb the consumer.
Now, the consumer, on whom
the tax thus ultimately falls, must
not only pay the amount of the
tax, but also a profit ON this amount
to every one who has thus advanced
it-for profit on the chpital he has adj
vanced in paying takes is as much re-
quired by each dealer as profit on the
capital he has adva1ced in paying for
goods. In this way apl taxes which add
to prices are shifted from hand to hand,
INCREASING as they 10, until they ulti-
mately rest upon confumers, who thus
pay much more than Is received by the
government Now, the way taxes raise
prices is by increasing the cost of pro
duction and checking supply. But land
is not thing of hun Ian production and
taxes upon rent can pot check supply.
Therefore, though . tax on rent COM
pels the land owners to pay more, il
gives them no powerful obtain more for
the use of their land, as it in no way
tends to reduce the supply of land. On
the contrary, by compelling those who
hold land on speculation to sell or let
for what they can get, a tax on land
values tends to increase the competition
between owners, and thus to reduce the
price of, land.
Thus in all respects tax upon land
values is the cheapest tax by which a
large revenue can be raised-giving to
the government the largest net revenue
in proportion to the amount taken from
tho raop1a