Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-23
The Art of TaX=dodging
Bv Frederic J. Haskin

illustration of the tax-dodglng spirit
There is not a living man who can
doubt that New York people own sew
eral times as much personal property
today as they owned a quarter of a
century ago. In that time realty
values in the metropolis have in
creased two thousand million dollars
but personal property assessments
have decreased forty million dollars.
So notorious has the practice of tax
lodging in that city become that the
re port of a tax commission says that
the personal property tax has degen-
Grated into a tax on ignorance and
h0nesty-on ignorance because anv
one who is not a fit subject for a
lunattc asylum can dodge 1t, and on
honesty because only the people of the
most rigid sense of honesty do not
dodge it.
The New York tax laws afford
hundred ways to get around the tax.
For instance, man may buy United
States bonds before the assessor
comes around and his investment will
not be taxed, though he may sell them
the next day. A ship owner whose
vessel is registered elsewhere need
pay no tax in New York. An author
ity on tax laws has taken illustrations
of the taxable and exempt forms of
property in New York, marking them
from A to u. At the conclusion he
states that if the alphabet had been
longer the list would have been larger.
In one of their reports the West Vir-
g.nia tax commissioners declare that
the average citizen looks upon his OBJ
legation to pay personal property tax
as no more binding than his obligation
to make a contribution to the neigh
borhood church or to the Sunday
school. The evil of tax-dodging be-
came so widespread in Missouri that
the legislature passed a bill a few
years ago requiring that all bonds and
notes should be listed for taxation and
that the holders of such bonds and
notes not so listed could not enforce
their collection. The governor prompt
ly vetoed this bill, saying that it would
serve more to drive money out of the
state than it would to increase taxes.
Corporations are the worst tax
dodgers. Their violation takes the
form usually of undervaluation. In a
case which came to light some time
since the president of a certain rail-
road made oath that the property was
worth not more than so much per
mile-when the question of assess
ment for taxation was pending. Not
very long after that the state in which
the road was situated passed q 2-cent
passenger rate. The railroad fought
the case in the courts and won. It's
contention was that the rate would not
yield a reasonable return on the value
of the porperty, which value was es-
tablished at three times as much as
the value for purposes of taxa ton
again upon the oath of this same rail-
road president.
1t is said that the burden of taxa
tion upon personal property usually
falls upon those least able to pay it.
The wealthy dodge, the poor pay. The
widow and the orphan suffer most A
widow who invests her life insurance
in a mortgage may have to pay per
cent tax, while corporation may have
to pay per cent on its net income.
Thus the widow has to give UP so per
cent of the income from her mortgage
to the tax collector, while the corpor-
alton pays only per cent. Seeing how
imperfectly the burdens of taxation are
distributed, how can the sin of tax
lodging lie so lightly upon the con-
sciences of men?
Tax-dodging Is no new thing. Rome
went to pieces through its efforts to
collect taxes from the personal prop
erty of its people. From the time when
taxation was nothing more than a
tribute demanded by some feudal lord
10 Il6 pT6Senl udy WHSn 1t is l6VieQ
for the purposes of promoting the pub
lie welfare, there always have been
tax-dodgers. The public does not real
ize who they are and to what extent
they are breaking the law until the
probate court gets hold of an estate.
Then there are fine picKlngs for the
assessor. Sometimes the probate court
shows an estate to be worth twenty
times as much as it was listed on the
tax books.
A law has been passed in New Zea-
land which bids fair to solve the age
long evil of men evading their just
contribution to the expense of govern
ment. This is so simple that it seems
strange no one ever thought of it be-
fore. The government calls upon the
citizen to make oath to the value of
his possessions and reserves the right
to take over at any time any property
whatsoever at the valuation placed
upon it by the owner. After a few
great estates had been confiscated by
the government the wholesale practice
of swearing to false values came to an
abrupt end.
Tomorrow-The Island of Porto Rico