The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-04-29
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
ECONOMY OF THE SINGLE TAX.

With, perhaps, the exception of. GER
tain licenses and stamp duties, which
may be made almost to collect them
selves, but which can 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
lected, for land can not be hidden or
carried off; its value can be readily as
certained, and the assessment once
made, nothing but receiveris required
for collection.
And as under all fiscal systems some
part of the public revenues is collected
from taxes on land, and the machin-
cry for that purpose already exists and
could as well be made to collect all as
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 engaged 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 tax on land values
for all other taxes would operate to re-
duce this difference in an even more inn
portant way.
A tax on land values 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 in the course of ex-
change are shifted from seller to buyer,
increasing as they. 60 If we impose a
tax upon money loaned, as has been
often attempted, the lender will charge
the tax to the borrower, and the bor-
rover must pay it or not OBJ
tain the loan. If 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 tax upon
buildings. the users of buildings must
finally pay for it, for the erection of
buildings will cease until building rents
become high enough to pay the regular
|
pose tax upon manufactures or inn
ported goods, the manufacturer or i'm
porter will charge it in a higher price
to the jobber, the jobber to the retailer,
and the retailer to 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 capital he has adj
vanced in paying taxes is as much re-
quircd by each dealer as profit on the
capital he has advanced in paying for
goods. In this way all taxes which add
to prices are shifted from hand to hand,
increasing as they go, until they ulti-
mately rest upon consumers, 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 a thing of human production and
taxes upon rent can not check supply.
Therefore, though tax on rent COM
pcls the land owners to pay more, it
gives them no power to 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-g giving to
the government the largest net revenue
in proportion to the amount taken from
the people.