Land tax

“ Is it a tax on land, and is it direct thereon, or so immediately on the land as to be equivalent to a direct levy upon it? To say that any burden on land, even though indirect, must be apportioned, is not only to incorporate a new provision in the constitution, but is also to obliterate all the decisions to which I have referred, by construing them as holding that, although the constitution forbids only a direct tax on land without apportionment, it must be so interpreted as to bring an indirect tax on land within its inhibition. ”

“ It is but very rarely that a man can point to his land-tax receipts as proof that he owns or has long cultivated any disputed area. Only by making a cadastral survey of the whole Territory would it be possible to place the land-tax system on a proper basis. At present the tax is in practice (with certain exceptions) levied on each village as a whole rather than on individual families. For many years past every village has paid through its headman or committee of headmen a certain sum of money which by courtesy is called land-tax. ”

“ The proper means to prevent settlers from seizing upon more land than they can put to good use, and taking up too wide an arrangement, is not a high price upon fresh lands (which is merely to suck out the life’s-blood of the colonist just as he is about to commence the arduous combat) , but a low land tax per acre, rated permanently to three or more class qualities of soil. This is the only genuine tax,—should be the only tax, and made available to the whole government of the colony. ”

“ The burden of a new land tax would therefore fall on those who paid it in the first instance, after which it would remain an excisum or 'part cut out' of the land—the property of the State, laid aside for public uses. ”

“ In most countries of Europe, the right to take by taxation, as exigency might require, an indefinite portion of the rent of land, has never been allowed to slumber. In several parts of the Continent, the land-tax forms a large proportion of the public revenues, and has always been confessedly liable to be raised or lowered without reference to other taxes. In these countries no one can pretend to have become the owner of land on the faith of never being called upon to pay an increased land-tax. In England the land-tax has not varied since the early part of the last century. ”

“ A fixed tax of so much per cultivated acre, without distinction of value, would have effects directly the reverse. Taking no more from the best qualities of land than from the worst, it would leave the differences the same as before, and consequently the same corn-rents, and the landlords would profit to the full extent of the rise of price. To put the thing in another manner; the price must rise sufficiently to enable the worst land to pay the tax; thus enabling all lands which produce more than the worst, to pay not only the tax, but also an increased rent to the landlords. ”

“ Sponsor legislation and mechanisms for imposing, in consultation with municipalities, a land tax in rural areas in which it is easy for the municipalities to collect revenues. The tax, from which small properties shall be exempt, will help to discourage owners from leaving land unused or underused. It must not encourage deforestation of woodlands. ”

“ No tax can be laid on land which will not affect the proprietor of millions of acres as well as the proprietor of a single acre. Every landholder will therefore have a common interest to keep the taxes on land as low as possible; and common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest bond of sympathy. But if we even could suppose a distinction of interest between the opulent landholder and the middling farmer, what reason is there to conclude, that the first would stand a better chance of being deputed to the national legislature than the last? ”

“ XII. The most proper method of imposing a land-tax is, without doubt, to confine the imposition to the rent of lands only, 645and to lay it on in proportion to them. But how is it to be expected that ever such a plan can take place in a nation where the proprietors of land govern the state? In France, the power of the King has never been able to establish a tax upon the rent of lands, for any longer duration than that of a foreign war. In a neighbouring nation, it has now been established for the greatest part of a century. ”

“ There is also a kind of irregular revenue derived from public requisitions, presents, fines, confiscations, &c, nowadays not producing much. The land tax, which varies according to localities, is paid in money and kind, and should amount on an average to about 25% of the yield of the soil. ”

“ Our conclusion is, that under actual conditions in America to-day the landowner may virtually be declared to pay in the last instance the taxes that are imposed on his land, and that at all events it is absolutely erroneous to assume any general shifting to the consumer. In so far as our land tax is a part of a general property tax, it can not possibly be shifted ”

“ This forms the basis of the land tax, which yields two-thirds of the national revenue. Although there are no fences, the limits of the fields are clearly marked by earthen banks or by the natural conformation of the land, and no farmer would dare to throw two fields together or divide a field into two without the cognisance and consent of the local prefect; and even then the latter would have to obtain permission from the central government. This arable land is considered under two heads, - rice-fields and ordinary fields. ”

“ The rent is no more directly the outgrowth or profit of the land than the crops or the coal, and a direct tax upon either is only an indirect tax upon the land. While, within the cases above cited, it is a tax upon land, it is a direct tax only upon one of the many profits of land, and is not only not a direct tax upon the land itself, but is also subject to the other objection, that it is, in its nature, incapable of apportionment according to population. ”

“ Though a tax on rent compels payment from landowners, it gives them no power to obtain more for the use of their land. On the contrary, by compelling those who hold land on speculation to sell or let for what they can get, a tax on land values tends to increase the competition between owners and thus to reduce the price of land. ”

“ If there was no tythe either in Great Britain or Ireland, the landlords could afford to pay six or seven millions additional land tax, without being more burdened than a very great part of them are at present. America pays no tythe, and could, therefore, very well afford to pay a land tax. The lands in America and the West Indies, indeed, are, in general, not tenanted nor leased out to farmers. ”

“ Such a contract is a limitation upon the taxing power of the legislature making it, and upon succeeding legislatures, to impose any further tax upon the franchise. But why, when bought, as it becomes property, may it not be taxed, as land is taxed which has been bought from the state, was repeatedly asked in the course of the argument? The reason is, that every one buys land, subject in his own apprehension to the great law of necessity, that we must contribute from it and all of our property something to maintain the state. ”

“ Reform proceeded next, with a land tax graduated to an ascending scale, to discourage land-grabbing, and land speculation; so that the more land a man owns the higher is the tax-rate upon it. Thus for farms of ordinary size the rate is two cents in every $5 of assessed valuation; but on estates of more than $25,000 the rate increases in regular ratio to the maximum of six cents for every $5, except for absentee owners. They must pay fifty per cent. more than residents. You can see that in New Zealand the chance for fine old families and landed gentry is slim. ”

“ The fact that where one delivers or agrees to give or transfer land, with all the fruits and revenues, it will be presumed to be a conveyance of the land, in no way supports the proposition that an indirect tax on the rental of land is a direct burden on the land itself. ”

“ Next to fire the most serious handicap to the progress of forestry is our unjust method of forest taxation. Laying as we do a yearly tax on both the growing crop and the land, the burden of taxation makes the holding of land for a second crop prohibitive as far as the private owner is concerned. ”

“ COMPARISON WITH PRESENT SYSTEM IN RESULTS The community would get no less tax revenue, but presumably more, than it does under the present system. In either case the owner will really pay annually only upon the land value, not upon the growth; the only difference being that under the proposed system he would not be asked to, while under the present system either there will be no growth to tax, or, if there is, he cannot afford to pay and the land will revert. It must be borne in mind that while cut-over land is actually being held under the present system, it has seldom grown anything yet. ”

“ This would mean that when the owner of deforested land chiefly valuable to the community for forest production agrees to make it produce, he shall be taxed not on his effort but upon the results of his effort, and then exactly as other producers are taxed upon their results. He may pay tax upon his land, as other land owners do, upon its actual value, but without this value being enhanced for taxation purposes by reason of any crop thereon. ”

“ Any person holding more than, say, 5,000 acres of land, should be taxed at a far heavier rate than those having smaller holdings. That is, presuming, in order to take a figure as basis, the land-tax on 5,000 acres to be at the rate of 1s. ”

“ In the first place, there is no classification of land within the State for taxation purposes. It is a generally accepted theory among experts in this matter at the present time that there is only one fair method of taxation which may be applied to land maintained by the owner in forest growth and that is that there should be a tax placed on the land which shall be an annual tax, and another tax placed on the forest crop when it is harvested. ”

“ From the beginning that part of the new land tax which has been most carefully impressed upon the people is that, while they will all benefit from it, only some 6 or 10 per cent. will be called upon to pay it. ”

“ Such taxes fall very lightly upon land values, being drawn chiefly from commodities and from houses and other real-estate improvements. Being so large they must seriously impede the production of houses, commodities, etc. If such taxes could be completely abolished, is it not probable that the building of houses, the making of commodities, and industry generally would be greatly stimulated? According to Professor Harris’ estimates a land-value tax at four per cent. ”

“ He takes especial pains to show that the farmers need have no alarm at the land-tax proposition, and affirms that this plan, in addition to its other benefits, "would bring about a just distribution of wealth, would give a perpetual stimulus to industry and production, would greatly increase wages, would increase the profits of capital, would give a security to property now unknown, would encourage manufactures, commerce, and agriculture, and would incidentally solve many social problems which under present conditions seem almost insoluble." ”

“ It is far better that forest land should pay a moderate tax permanently than that it should pay an excessive revenue temporarily and then cease to pay at all.
We tax our forests under the general property tax, a method of taxation abandoned long ago by every other great nation. In some regions of great importance for timber supply, and in individual cases in all regions, the taxation of forest lands has been excessive and has led to waste by forcing the destructive logging of mature forests, as well as through the abandonment of cut-over lands for taxes. ”

“ Constitutional amendment and legislation should be invoked to permit a low fixed tax on cut-over land during the period of no return to the owner, the State to be compensated by a tax on the crop when cut. Obviously this inducement should be offered only to those holders of cut-over land who will reciprocate by furthering the object sought. The result of such a system would be not only perpetuation of the forest and its attendant industries and payroll, but also a far greater tax return than the present one of encouraging potential forest land to become worthless and non-taxable. ”

“ And once you have made land quasi-private property, it cannot justly be subjected to any peculiar tax, since colossal as is the rise of land values in growing towns, the value of land is controlled by the same factors of luck and judgment as rule all other property values, and may be depreciated as well as enhanced by the operation of social forces beyond the owner’s control or prevision. ”

“ When the increased tax came to be levied, these lands were all thrown on the market. The depreciation in prices of these lands at first brought a considerable access of population, but this soon became checked, because the farmers found that on account of the loss of taxes on these lands, the rates had to be increased and the additional burden fell on the resident farmers. These in almost all cases owned considerable land they did not cultivate, but were saving for speculation or for their children. Often a farmer owing 160 acres, cultivated, but 40. ”

“ The tax upon land values is, therefore, the most just and equal of all taxes. It falls only upon those who receive from society a peculiar and valuable benefit, and upon them in proportion to the benefit they receive. It419 is the taking by the community, for the use of the community, of that value which is the creation of the community. It is the application of the common property to common uses. When all rent is taken by taxation for the needs of the community, then will the equality ordained by nature be attained. ”