The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-01-03
TAXES IN ENGLAND

The whole system of taxation I'M
der English Liberal. rule today is bas-
ed on the idea of taxing luxuries and
freeing necessities; taxing the idle
wealthy and relieving the industrious
poor. | have already referred to the
tax on the unearned increment in
land A similar distinction is made
with regard to incomes. II man has
a big income which is not the result
of his own labor or industry, he pays
two or three times as large an as
sessment as the man whose income is
really earned by his own industry, ge-
MUS or ability, moreover the income
tax is graduated so that men with
very large incomes pay several times
as high a rate as those with only
moderate incomes.
Another great source of English
revenue is the Inheritance tax or
death duties" Undoubtedly this is
about the least injurious tax in the
world, and no southern state gets
one-half as much as it ought to get.
A fortune left to a young fellow is
often not a blessing to him, but 4
CURSE How many a boy, inheriting
even a few thousand dollars, has
grown up in idleness and dissipation
Not fittin' to stop a gully with as
Uncle Remus would say; when a lit
tie wholesale poverty would have
made a man of him! We should tax
inheritances more, an England's plan
for increasing these death duties" as
the legacies increase, presents the
right idea. The London paper ROW
before me mentions three estates
valued at about $5,000,000, on which
the government will collect as death
duties" from 100000 to $1,OOO,OO0.
Mrs. Cornelia Hulcott, whose estate
is worth $1,500,000, with the death
duties" $1SO,00O; Mr.. ]. H. Locke,
who died, worth 100000, subject like
wise to a legacy duty of 10 per cent,
and Mr.. C. B. Martay, who left ST.
100000, on which the government col
lects not only the 10 per cent. death
duty" but II per cent. legacy duty
because none of the property was left
to a nearer relative than cousin.
Then there is the new 'unearned
increment" land tax In England, as
have already said, a small group of
men own most of the land, most Of
the legislation has been in their ia
vor, and they have been enabled to
fleece numerically the renters of this
densely crowded island. Taxation
heretofore has been based chiefly or
rents, and the renter paid the tax, SO
that it was possible for a man to hold
undeveloped land on the edge of a
city until the houses grew dense
around it without paying taxes on
anything except its farming value.
But Mr.. Lloyd Georges 1909 Budget
revolutionizes this state of affairs by
III GlOuuClIS me uOCLI4llS vi uuSdEu6u
increment" in incomes and on city
land Suppose, for example, there is
man who buys lot worth $4,000.
He does nothing whatever to improve
the value of the land, but simply
through the growth of the town and
the development of the country it be-
comes worth 100000 The $4,000
increase from $4,000 to 100000 not
being due in any measure to the own
er's labor is called in England "un-
earned increment" and tax of 20
per cent. is laid upon it. In other
words, the state says, Because of
the development of the country and
the protection of the government you
have made $4,000, it is only fail,
therefore, that for each s100 you
should pay back $40 for the further
development of the country and the
people, to which you owe the whole
hundred. "-Clarence Poe, in the Pro
gressive Farmer.