The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-01-14
POINTS ou1iNIQul1IEs.
Tax Commission Writes HarshIy
About Inequalities.


Of Ohio submitted to the legislature
by Governor Harris, this strong con-
demnatory language is used in dis
cussing the iniquities Of the present
tax SYSTEM:
First-It Furnishes the honest. The
taxpayer who undertakes to make a
full return Of his cash, credits, stocks
and bonds, is bound to return them
at their true value in money and this
value is apparent or SO easily ascer-
tainable in most cases as to permit
no difference Of opinion. A deposit In
a solvent bank can not be worth less
than par; a note with good security
by way of mortgage, or otherwise. is
worth it's face value; while~a bond or
share of stock has generally fixed
market price. To list these class IS
Of property at less than their valLe
would be as plain violation OF the
law as not to list them at all. and
yet II the owner returned them for
taxation and they were subjected to
the prevailing rate. he would pay sew
eral times as much taxes as the own
er Of tangible property, which had
been assessed at far less than its
true value in money, and In many
cases all his profits from such invest
ments would be confiscated by the
public authority. It is well known
that with an average tax rate In most
Ohio cities of from 3 to per cent,
the owner OF cash In bank or of first
class Industrial bonds. or Of standard
stock in foreign corporation would
thus. in some instances not only be
deprived OF all returns upon his In
vestment but would pay fine In ad-
dition for the privilege Of such own.
ership.
Second-It rewards the dishonest.
A taxpayer who cares more for his
property than he does for his oath will
not include, In any return Of his own
making, property which he can easily
hide and the existence Of which no
methods have yet been devised which
are adequate to reveal
Third-It results frequently In dou-
BILE taxation. This may not be true
with respect to all intangible prop
erty, but an indisputable case cf dou-
BILE taxation Is found In the attempt
to tax. at the same rate and by the
same methods, both land ana the
mortgage upon It, II "a owninr q
farm worth $4,000 bcrsoIs sj.n0)
upon It he is required to aay taxes
under the present laws os hio on
the full value of the farm, while -"
who loans the money pays t.xes ~
the $1,000 mortgage. This Il nct only
double taxation. but II imp aes .hc
burden upon one who can La 'Grl
to bear 1t, for the owner OF .he laAa
not only continues to pay ta1s OF
it's full value. but he pays an Il cunt
of interest on the mortgage wl.e. II
computed upon the assumption toat
such mortgage is taxable. In other
words, the borrower pays a higAar
rate Of interest than he would ii tho
mortgage were not subject to taxa
tion, and this despite the fact That
the mortgage Is generally concealed
by the MORTGAGE. A further result
OF this taxation Of land and mort
cages at the same rate Is a discr.m-
ination against citizens Of Ohio and
In favor O: citizens OF other states. A
resident of this state who lends
money secured by mortgage In Ohio
is taxed upon, the credit thus created,
whereas nonresident, such as for
eign insurance company, is not taxed
kpon any Indebtedness to him se-
cured by a mortgage upon land in this
state.
OF all other property. The escape
from taxation of fully 80 per cent of
all intangible property, which is un-
doubtedly going on In Ohio today, In,
creases by exactly its share the bur-
den upon the owners OF other prop
erty and particularly the owners of
real estate which may be. and gen,
orally Is. assessed for titxsticn bslow
its true mrrket valve. byN which. IN,
itier nd clraums cirh ';iltbgethcf
avoid The duplicate q'N ''fDn' =
i'dFifthr--It lowers the standard Of Il
tegrity. And this is the grayest cor
plaint that can be brought agains'
the present system. II the attempt
to tax intangible property by the
same methods as those which apply
to other forms OF property were q
material benefit to the state. which It
10 not. instead of material injury,
which It is. such benefit could never
compensate for the deplorable influ-
ence upon the moral sense of COM
munities that results from q knowl-
edge that false returns for taxation
are made BY citizens generally.