The Press., 1898-08-04
THE TAXATION OF MILLION
 AIRES.

Among the millionaire suburban resi- erty was greatly increased last year in assessment for taxes was William Rocke- feller, who carried his case to the courts. A referee was appointed to take evidence in the matter, and he has reported to the court that the assessment should be $343, ,775, instead of $2, 1s9, ,OO0, which the local assessors had placed upon 1t. The property was located in North Tarrytown, and 1t was shown in the testimony that the assessor who increased the valuation by over 600 per cent. above the referee's valuation was plasterer by trade who had declared after his election that he would put the taxes on the rich and drive them out of town. Probably the court will confirm the referees valuation.
 It does not appear exactly what MT. Rockefeller had invested in the property. He is said to have paid $150, 900 for it.
 The old house was torn down and a new one built, and altogether he is supposed to have expended 8 million dollars, per- haps, on the estate, though we depend on the newspapers for the figures, the refer ee's report apparently not touching on this point in the case. This raises an in- teresting question, whether the invest ment can properly be considered in deter mining the taxable value of piece of property. The Rockefeller property was evidently overvalued by the assessors about 100 per cent. or more, even when the cost to the owner Is made basis of reckoning, and criminal malice has clear ly been proved against them in case. But If expenditure by the owner Is to be con- as far below the proper valuation as that of the assessors was above it-assuming that the property has cost MT. Rockefel- Ter a million dollars.
 Opinions may be said to differ in re- spect to the basis of assessment in excep- tional cases of @ very rich mans very ex- pensive home, but 1t is obviously the case that the "fair market value" basis may sometimes be unfair. Such properties, in the extreme instances, may be said to have no market value. It requires buy CTS and sellers to establish a market, and the possible buyers in such an instance are so few and so widely scattered as to be hardly worth the counting. It has been predicted that the next quarter of 8 century will produce a millionaire in the United States, standing far above all about him in material possessions. If this millionaire should build a suburban home commensurate with his wealth, ex- pending thereon, say, $60, ,OOO, 900, how should it be assessed for taxation? At a fair market value? But it has no such value, properly speaking, in @ country of some few ordinary millionaires, and where the many possess only bare living in- come. If it were assessed at about what 1t might bring at forced sale, the tax val uation would have to be reduced to a mill lion dollars or less, and the millionaire would go untaxed on the bulk of the wealth he had withdrawn from produc- | ton and was lavishing upon himself. A fairer valuation would appear to be fig ure approximating what the market value might be If many billionaires existed to form something of a market for such property, and this would require that the actual amount expended on the billion.
 aires residence be taken into account
 The case of the millionaire Is measur.
 ably opposite to the present situation. Striking inequalities in wealth present @ problem in the taxation of non productive property which cannot reasonably and l fairly be solved by clfnging strictly tc | the market value basis of valuation for
 as we ascend the scale of individual pos.
 sessions the market for such property grows smaller and smaller until point
 is reached where no market can be said to exist. Then 1t Is that the fair market value standard of tax valuation may justI | ly be abandoned. Springfield Repxblscan