University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-10-28
INHERITANCE TAX IS
CONVENIENT AND JUST
This is the View Of DR.. S. S. Huebner, Assistant
Professor of the Wharton School of Finance
and Commerce, in Learned Address.

connection OF the cOuntrys banking sys
TEN with the security market and tn
almost Overlimited means of big men t.
manipulate markets upwards and ruth
lessly tear them down by extensive shOr'
selling, that is selling shares they do moi
possess, We see the spectacle every little
while, of considerable portion of the
accumulatiOns of the middle class being
diverted to the Golfers of the compare
lively few who do things and know
things. When securities are high in
value, we see them passing from the
few who know to the many who do not
know, and when they are low We see
them passing from the many who do
not know to the few who do.
Tax As Regulator.
What could an inheritance tax do to
regulate or keep down fortunes which
are thus obtained: 1t might as well be
argued that if the rate on direct heirs
is made unusually heavy, with this OBJ
ject in view, these men might promptly
proceed to get even with the State by
increasing their fortunes by just so much
more. How much better it would be to
simply make the inheritance tax a rea
sOnable tax, thus unhampering legimate
enterprise, and to limit its functions to
the raising of a substantial amount of
revenue. The nation has been thor
Oughly aroused to existing abuses in our
business life. Much has already been
lone to cure corporate abuses, and our |
stock and produce exchanges are already
under investigation. Surely much more
will be accomplished in the eradication of
present evils if legislation is aimed
lirectly at the causes, instead OF
eaving the causes untouched, and seek
ng to mitigate their effect through a
AK whose general application is bound
o punish the innocent and guilty alike"
Good Revenue Producer.
Doctor Huebner supported the inheri-
ance tax very strongly as a good and
lst revenue producer and maintained ,
nat since its legitimate object is the {
reduction of revenue and not its pos
bilities for controlling the distribution I
wealth. or rectifying the imperfec- 4
Ons of the existing property tax, it f
L<, do Of hx, he, Am
to much greater extent !,
ian is now the case In countries like 4
noland and France, he showed, the in +
,ritance tax has been made to yield n
bstantial part of the total revenue. 8
lille in the United States, with the eX II
ption of few States, the tax is prac r,
ally negligible quantity. In this T
injection he says: AT recent date :,
e United Kingdom raised nearly ten Il
T. cent. of its enormous national in a,
me through the Inheritance tax or an q
nivalent of S2.O6 per capita. France in
,ured over six per cent, of its large nc
,enue through this source, or a per fo
,ita contribution of $lO9. Even in the n,
stralian colonies, like South Austria 90
and Victoria, the annual income from ov
: tax amounts to approximately $lOO in
capita. In the United States, on do
contrary, with the single exception in
New York State, with it's cOncentrat su
fortunes where the income from this :,
amounted to fOrty-eight cents per
ita, but seven States secured as much
ten cents per capita from this source.
fire
Progressive Tax. lar
This low productivity of American lea
eritance taxes is not to be attri- ges
ed to any difference in the size of as
unes. or the average amount trans the
ed at death. In this respect the exI
ted States certainly equals, if it does spe
surpass, the record of the countries zen
tiOned. The explanation is found tut
he superior and more drastic nature pro
The legislation enacted abroad. In VOL
SHIlCu tItC tdA Has W
e progressive as regards direct heirs, and
rate ranging from one to eight per A
according to the amount of the rev,
te; in France from one to two and of
half per cent. for direct heirs and sho
three and three quarters to eigh of
and One-half per cent on collateral entt
y; while in Australia, the laws in this
v instance make the rates progress the
for direct heirs from one to five who
,ent., and in the case of South Aus poin
a from one to ten per cent. In the wou
ed States, on the contrary, about ence
of the States confine the tax to COVE
es passing to collateral heirs and nue.
lgers in blood only, and this in view anl
lie fact that the great majority of he .
es pass between immediate relatives. at q
rs been pointed out for the State of nati
York, The direct inheritance tax
le per cent. on personal estates in ~,
5 of $4,000 has yielded from one
to more than three -fourths as much
Tie as collateral inheritance tax of
'er cent. on both real and personal