The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
restore alcohol to the arts, diminish fraud, and give us a revenue of at
least $40,000,000 annually,--a sum nearly equal to the proceeds of the
income tax.
INCOME TAX.
The Revenue Commission clearly demonstrate by their Report and table of
income, that this tax will not be required to meet our interest and
current expenses, and they apparently retain a portion of it as a flank
guard for their other items of revenue; but it is obvious from their
very guarded Report that this flank guard may be dispensed with. The
Commissioners very properly suggest that it is better to place this tax
upon created wealth and net income than to levy it upon production, and
in this all sensible men will concur; but we require at this time no
surplus revenue of $81,000,000. Our revenue from foreign duties must
exceed their estimate; and if it did not, a sinking fund of $32,000,000
is ample for a debt of $2,700,000,000, $400,000,000 of which draws no
interest, and the residue of which we may well presume will soon be
permanently funded at reduced interest. The income tax in Great Britain
is but 1-2/3 per cent, and it is wise to reduce our own tax on the
surplus incomes of the rich from ten to five per cent; but the
suggestion that an income tax should be imposed on rents exceeding $300
is in conflict with the Commissioners' suggestion, at page 60 of their
Report: "The general government has taken to itself nearly every source
of revenue, except the single one of real estate, which had been before
burdened with large expenditures for schools, roads, and other things
with which the local governments stand charged," and "cases can be cited
in which taxation upon real estate even now falls little short of
confiscation. Justice and wise policy, therefore, would seem to demand
that the national government should not now adopt any measures
calculated to maintain or increase these burdens, but, on the contrary,
do all in its power to diminish them."
Let the nation follow this judicious advice, and dispose of the
additional charge on real estate by repealing the income tax, which we
cease to require, or reducing it to a tax of three or four per cent upon
dividends and coupons, which will yield at least ten millions. This will
furnish a sufficient rear-guard for the corps which the Commission has
marshalled.
To use another happy expression in the very able Report of the
Commission,--"Freedom from multitudinous taxes, espionage, and
vexations; freedom from needless official inquisitions and intrusions;
freedom from the hourly provocations of each individual in the nation to
concealments, evasions, and falsehoods; freedom for industry,
circulation, and competition,--everywhere give the nation these
conditions, and it will give in return a flowing income."
We indorse the conclusions of the Commission, but would carry them to
their legitimate results,--the repeal of the inquisitorial tax on
incomes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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