Barbour County index., 1910-10-19
The Inheritance Tax

IAlAh IL lis uuty 10 20 ali ne can 10
increase the revenues. If he can de-
wise some new kind of tax he ap-
pears to think he has proved his
| craftsmanship. These worthless lose
sight of the fact that taxes never
build a country but are a drain on
its prosperity.
In the effort to let nothing escape
taxation, man is taxed all through
life from the cradle to the grave, ON
what he consumes, on what he
saves,on what he does, in every way
that can be devised, and now if any,
thing is left the inheritance law
pursues him beyond the grave and
takes toll of his property on the
sole condition that he has died.
This might not be so bad if it
were conditioned on the descendant
leaving an estate of a million
dollars but this Kansas law
taxes inheritances that are not suffi-
cient for ownership of a good house
or small farm.
1t ignores the fact that the family
is really the owner of the property
and themselves so consider it, as
| they always speak of "our house"
or 'our farm the husband and
father being merely the business
end or head
If the head of the family dies the
widow must mortgage the farm, if
| necessary, to pay an inheritance tax
on what is really hers as much as
the husbands, fact that is recog-
nized by the requirement that the
wife must join her husband in
deed when the property is sold. The
property is in the husbands name
by custom and for convenience, but
the inheritance tax exacts toll, and
when the wife dies it is taxed again
The legislature seems to have
overlooked the fact that this tax US
,ually comes right on top of the
greatest misfortune that can befall a
family.
There are few millionaires in
Kansas. Fifty thousand dollars is a
rather good sized fortune according
to standards here and is apt to get
quite jolt from this law when it's
owner dies. Suppose man is worth
fifty thousand dollars and is engag-
ed in business that pays him a few
thousand dollars a year, and that he
lives on liberal scale, perhaps
keeping a child or two in college,
and spends, say four thousand dol
lars year, besides laying aside
something each year. The family is
merely in comfortable circumstances
without any swollen fortune attach
ments.
The man dies. His business is
wound up and the proceeds invested
in good bonds, which at going rates
bring an income of about two thous-
and dollars year and the taxes on
the fifty thousand dollars of proper
ty being one thousand dollars, re-
duce this to one thousand dollars a
year available income. They cannot
exist on it. They are plunged into
poverty and must consume the prin-
cipal. 1t would take the income of
two hundred thousand dollars, de-
Quoting the taxes, to enable the
family to live in the comparatively
modest manner to which they are
accustomed.
The death of the head of the fam
lily amounts to a money loss of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars
to the family, yet here comes the
heartless inheritance tax demanding
share of what is left because the
family is in such luck.
There is no more justice in such
procedure than there is in that of
the tyrant who collects his tax by
torture.
A man may squander his means
without let or hindrance but is not
allowed to do what he pleases with
it if he saves it till he dies.
The law should be called "An act
to encourage spendthrifts, or "a
tax on misfortune
It is really not tax at all. Tax
es are laid in proportion to the val
ue of the property taxed. This in
heritance tax levies a certain per
cent against legacies of a certain
size.
The Kansas legislature could prof.
itably spend a session repeating
laws, and ought to begin with this
inheritance tax law which has no
more place among respectable laws
than grave robber has among de-
cent mems. Tone in Wichita Bea-
con.
There are few men in Barber coun-