The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-08

formation is, Of course, the statute it.
self. The most superficial examina.
ton shows that no real estate tax as
such is intended by Congress. If IL
had been, there would have been a
provision for the appraisement, by
rental value or otherwise, of vacant
and unproductive land. If it had been,
there would have been provision for
the appraisement, by rental value or
which are occupied as homestea1s and
for purposes of private enjoyment and
pleasure.
THE owner of vacant, unprojuctive
lands held for investment and specula-
ton, whether they be city lots or thou
sands of unimprOved acres, pays Moth
ing under this law on account of such
lands. The millionaire with a half mil
lion dollar mansion in the city and an
equally costly residence by the seaside
pays nothing under this law. The
manufacturer or the railroad corpora
ton, the very basis of whose business
Is the interest in real estate occupied
and used therefor, pays nothing under
this law on account of such real estate.
1t is impossible 10 contend, therefore,
that this law contemplates real estate
as such as the subject of the tax i'm
posed by it. If there could be a pos
Sible doubt on that point it is excluded
by the enumeration of the subjects of
the tax contained in section %. Each
and every one is personal property,
and SO carefully is the distinction Cb-
served that when the clause imposing
the succession tax is reached it is ex-
pressly limited to money and the value
Of all personal property acquired by
the gift of inheritance.
rr,o
such being the unmistakable pur-
pose of the law, is ii true that Con-
gress has stultified itself? Is it true
that it has managed to do the very
thing that 1t meant to avoid dong?
That is supposed to be the result be-
cause a taxpayers rents are placed
among the constituents of his taxable
income. But the intent of the Con-
gresS is to be recognized and effectu-
ated, if possible, and its inclusion of
rents in taxable income is not TO be
suffered to defeat that intent if any
legitimate view of the statute will pre-
vent it. Can such a view be taken? l
respectfully submit not only that it
can be, but that it should-that it is
the only reasonable, and best way.
The opinion Of the court deals with the
case as if rents were the only subject
of the income tax law. That is not, /
submit, the true way of looking at the
matter But suppose it be adopted,
what follows? We then have a statute
dealing with the landlords, as a class,
taxing them because of their vocation
Of landlords and measuring the tax by
rents actually received.
1.-The statute, however, cannot prop
erly be looked at in that way. 1t is
not statute imposing a tax upon a
particular class of persons, namely,
landlords, in respect to a particular
source of income, namely, rents. 1t is
a statute-special exemptions being not
now considerable is a statute taxing
all persons having incomes in respect
OF all sources of incomes.
A Great Error.
1.-The tax payer pays this year ac-
cording to his money spending ability
of last year and it is entirely conceiv-
able that a man who this year does
not earn a cent and is without a cents
worth of property real or personal,
may, nevertheless, be assessed on
hundreds of thousands of dollars of
income actually received by him last
year. Yet this is the sort of tax which
is called a tax on real estate for no
other reason than that last years rents
form part of the yardstick by which
this years money spending capacity
is measured. A greater error, I SUBJ
nit, could not easily be committed
Of the distinction between person.
atty and reality in the matter of taxa
ton is made by the constitution itself
and that it is a necessary assumption
Of the argument-where does this court
get the authority to set it aside as
matter of form? No such authority
exists.
1T may be a tax upon personality in
the shape of rents as is the same thing
to the landlord pecuniariiy as a tax
upon the land itself,
But landlords are not the only par
ties concerned. The whole people are
interested, since to them it is of the first
Importance that the constitution should
be respected in its entirety and that no
branch of the government should
undertake to deal with any part of it
as mere matter of form.
1T is intimated that. logically speak
ing, II tax on real estate is a direct
tax, SO is tax on personal property,
and that if tax on rents is a tax on