The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1916-10-28
Tax Burdens, Which Intangible
Property Ought to Share in
Carrying, Are Shifted to
Farms, Cottages and
Work Shops.
THE idle RICH ARE NOT TAXED

and Make it Possible to Revise the
Personal Property Tax Laws-Ts
Not Vote Is to Vote "No!"
The present tax law protects the
rich. 1t enables those who live off Of
the interest of their money to escape
taxation altogether. The wealth Of
the rich is largely made up of securi-
ties which produce dividends or bear
interest. Very little of this sort Of
property is taxed in Illinois.
When a man acquires enough
wealth to live off of the interest of it
he can invest it in securities of some
sort and live without labor or effort
and without contributing any none
tary aid to the community in which he
resides. Such owners of accumulated
wealth have all of the benefits of the
places where they ive-schools, po-
lice, fire and health service, roads and
bridges. They have all of the rights
and protection Of citizenship.
1t is estimated that there is almost
as much of taxable intangible values
In Illinois as there is of real estate.
Because Of the failure of our tax
system real property pays practically
all of the taxes to maintain public
service of various kinds, which the
owners of intangible wealth get the
benefit of but do not aid in supporting.
1t is argued by some that the owner Of
intangible wealth who rents house
and pays the rent out of the earnings
of his stocks and bonds really pays
the taxes. But, while he may be pay
ing the taxes upon the property he
lives in, he is not paying the taxes
upon the intangible property which he
possesses and which the laws of the
state protect him in holding and which
goes on increasing in value. His fail
ure to pay taxes increases the taxes
on the home which the wage worker
and poor man owns and perhaps owes
for.
The spectacle of wholly untaxed
wealth is demoralizing to the popular
mind. 1t makes it appear that there
is a tax law for the poo man and
different tax law for the rich man.
The forbidding aspect of this is in
creased by the fact that the rich man
now escapes taxation upon his intangi-
BILE values by failing to comply with
the law.
The law now requires that all in
tangible values shall be assessed and
taxed at the same rate as real prop
erty. 1t has been found to be impossi-
BILE accurately to locate intangible val
ues the same as farms, skyscrapers,
railroads. The tax rate on intangibles
being the same as on real estate and
other tangibles is excessive compared
with other states. If fully collected it
would take about one-third of the in
come on stocks and bonds. This is
higher rate of income tax" than is
collected under any income tax law.
The result is that it is not collected
at all, because the security holder
hides his wealth; or, if he does not sue.
coed in hiding it, he moves it out of
the state to other states where intan-
gible tax rates are proportional some
what to income.
The Tax Amendment to be voted on
in Illinois November z will make It
possible for the legislature to over
haul our entire revenue system, so far
as personal property is concerned and
make laws that will tit the case Of
each class of property, probably ex-
empting small lots of household goods,
shops and tools. A failure to vote is
a vote mo"