The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-08-10
THEY ARE PRIVATE
Tax Returns to the Assessors for
Their Use Only.
OFFICERS MUST HAVE FIGURES
Government Should Not
Exhibit Assessments.
So Says Another Taxpayer" Who
Favors a Gradatory
Taxation.
OFFICERS MUST HAVE FIGURES

MIR. EDITOR:-Thee exception taken
by 'TaX Payer" to what he considers
i'll treatment by the assessor in not per-
mitting him to examine the tax books
for the purpose of gaining information
concerning the private affairs of his
neighbors, Gas appears in your issue of
July 13th), brings to the surface again,
the question as to what extent the pri-
vate business of an individual or COM
pany should be exposed to the public
by the Government
It's officers must of necessity have
such intimate knowledge of private
business affairs as will enable them to
assess and collect all that is by law due
to the Government. And as an impor-
tant aid to the equitable adjustment of
tax laws for purposes of revenue or
protection, legislators must have free
access to the tax books. This privilege
may indeed serve as a very efficient
check on possible inefficiency or even
dishonesty on the part of the assessors.
1t may also be consided that any tax
against unjust discrimination between
the assessment of his own property and
that of his neighbors-a discrimination
which is by no means uncommon, by
the way-should be permitted within
certain limits, or under certain restric-
tions, to satisfy himself in the matter.
No attempt will be made here to define
the nature or extent of these restric-
tions Suffice it to say that, while ev-
cry honest man must gracefully submit
to the inevitable necessities of the case,
so far as the Government is concerned,
it by no means follows that he will not
decidedly object to giving to the public,
throught the medium of the tax books,
such information as neither he would
public have the impudence to seek at
his business office.
Every man has a right to consider
that his business is his own, so long as
the statutory and moral laws, and this
feeling can never be entirely overcome
by arguments to the contrary, however
strong they may be. This is natures
instinct for self protection.
What has been said in connection
with property taxes applies in much
greater degree to the matter of in
comes. The principle of taxing incomes
is, to the mind Of the writer, sound,
even to the extent of the tax being
gradatory, offering, as he believes it
does, the correct means of equitably
adjusting the burdens thereof, between
the wealthy and the poor.
It will scarcely be disputed that,
other conditions being equal, a man
with an income of $4,000 a year can
more readily pay a tax of per cent or
5000 without feeling it, than another
with an income of only $4,000, can pay
a tax of 1 per cent or $40. 1t is only
after the necessary expenses of a rea-
sonable rate of living have been met,
that extraneous demands on ones in
come can be made without imposing
privation or even hardship. By every
dollar added to ones income after nee
essary expenses have been met, does it
become easier for him to bear other
burdens without suffering hardship or
injustice.
And it were better even that some
liberality were exercised in providing
for the limit of exemption than that