face value but bearing two and eight per cent. interest is obvious; it is, however, only an extreme instance from among many analogous ones in general property taxation. In practice, under the general property tax, intangible personalty is for the most part concealed from assessing authorities. This fact and the lack of adequate means of assessing many other forms of personal property cause the general property tax in reality to become largely a tax upon real estate.

About a third of the constitutions, therefore, have clauses of similar purport to the Kentucky amendment of 1915,

Taxes shall be levied and collected for public purposes only and shall be uniform upon all property of the same class subject to taxation within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax; and all taxes shall be levied and collected by general laws.

The General Assembly shall have power to divide property into classes and to determine what class or classes of property shall be subject to local taxation."

The difficulties inherent in ascertaining even the tangible property of great corporations like interstate railroads has led not only to special machinery for assessing corporations but to the abandonment in some states of the property tax so far as they are concerned and the substitution of a system of taxation based upon their receipts in business. It is cutsomary in such states to reserve corporation taxes for state purposes, and, indeed, a usual accompaniment of the movement against the general property tax and in favor of taxing different objects at different rates is the reservation of certain kinds of property for state taxation and others for local taxation. The separation of the sources of state and local revenue is one of the most strongly

In the case of stocks that are listed on the market statutes customarily provide that their taxable value is their market value.

"In addition to those which specifically authorize classification there are some states in which the right to do so is not denied and has been assumed. The Civic Federation of Chicago (Pamphlet, Apace with Progress, p. 19) gives the following list of states which have permitted or to some extent adopted classification: Ariz., Colo., Conn., Del., Ga., Ia.. Ky., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N. M., N. Y., N. D., Okla., Pa., R. I., Vt.. Va., Wis. To this list should be added Ida, and N. J. In 1916 Ill. and S. D. will vote on classification.

"The amendment provides also that "Any law passed or enacted by the General Assembly pursuant to the provisions of or under this amendment or amended section of the Constitution, classifying property and providing a lower rate of taxation on personal property, tangible or intangible, than that upon real estate, shall be subject to the referendum power of the people, which is hereby declared to exist to apply only to this section, or amended section."

See Cal., XIII, 14 (a); Minn., IV, 32a.

219. Classification of Property.

220.

Mines and
Forests.

advocated changes that are being currently urged for state tax systems. Frequently the reliance of the state government on corporation, inheritance and, perhaps licence and income taxes, leaves the general property tax entirely to the localities. The danger that careless and irresponsible legislatures might exempt corporations from taxation by charter, and that the exemption under the impairment of contracts clause1 might be held to be irrevocable, has resulted in clauses in about half of the constitutions forbidding the legislature ever to suspend or contract away the power to tax corporations or, occasionally, the power of taxation in general.2

3

Constitutional attention to specific kinds of property is not confined to great industrial and commercial organizations. Domestic animals, expositions and ferries are examples along with the extremely interesting special treatment of mineral and timber resources. Thus South Carolina exempts mines from the general property tax and ordains that the products of mines and mining claims alone shall be taxed, and Wyoming provides that

all mines and mining claims from which gold, silver and other precious metal, soda, saline, coal, mineral, oil or other valuable deposit is or may be produced, shall be taxed in addition to the surface improvements and in lieu of taxes on the lands, on the gross product thereof as may be prescribed by law, provided that the product of all mines shall be taxed in proportion to the value thereof.

In Massachusetts the legislature is given full power

to prescribe for wild or forest lands such methods of taxation as will develop and conserve the forest resources of the state.

Required by Cal. constitution, XIII, 10, 14; note sec. 14 (e).

"e. g., N. Y., Wis. Wis. alone has made the income tax successful. Though administered entirely by the state, the receipts are for the most part turned over to local governments.

1U. S. Const., I, 10. Most of states,-e. g., Tenn., I, 20: see Home of the Friendless v. Rouse, 8 Wall., 430; Corington v. Kentucky, 173 U. S., 231.

2e. g., the power of taxation shall never be surrendered, suspended or contracted away. (Ariz., IX. 1; Minn., IX, 1; Okla., X. 5); power to tax corporations or corporate property not to be surrendered or suspended by act of legislature. (La., 228; Mo., X, 2; Tex., VIII, 4).

se. g., Miss., IV, 112.

Ark., XVI, 5.

se. g., ib.

'Amend. XLI.

These various inroads upon its original and absolute significance are gradually disintegrating the general property tax.

Licence Tax.

Licence or privilege taxes upon business and occupations 221. are especially characteristic of the South and, notwithstanding their condemnation from the point of view of both theory and practice by students of taxation, they form part of the revenue system of every state. Though required by none of the constitutions, about one-third expressly permit or regulate them.8

A poll tax is required by fourteen constitutions, subject to various limitations as to age, sex, purpose and amount. It usually falls upon males between twenty-one and fifty or sixty years of age, and the proceeds usually go to the support of education. The poll tax seldom exceeds one or two dollars per year. Georgia1 provides that

no poll tax shall be levied except for educational purposes, and such tax shall not exceed $1 annually upon each poll.

Eight other states expressly permit the levy of a poll tax and four prohibit it. According to the Maryland Bill of Rights1 the levying of taxes by the poll is grievous and oppressive and ought to be prohibited.

The poll tax without any constitutional authorization forms a part of the revenue systems of the twenty-one states remaining. There are numerous variations in detail: for example, in Illinois it exists only in the form of a permissive road tax for counties and in Vermont polls are taxed as property of the arbitrary value of two hundred dollars."

Twelve constitutions expressly permit the levying of income taxes. In Ohio at least half of the income tax must be returned to the city, village or township in which it originated.

Ala., Ariz., Ark, Fla.. Ida.. Ill., Ky., La., Mont., Neb., Okla., S. C., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Va., W. Va., Wis. See, also, Mass.. Pt. II, ch. 1, sec. I, 4.

"Ala., Ark., Del., La., Me., Miss., Nev., N. H., N. C., R. I. (voters only); S. C., Tenn., Va., Wyo. (county purposes only). par. 3.

1VII, 2,

Held not to prevent requirement to work on roads.

2Fla., Ida., Ky., Mass., N. D., Okla., Tex., W. Va.

Cal., Md., Ore., O.

4XV.

The tax is $2.

Ariz., IX, 12; Cal. XIII, 11; Ky., 174; N. C., V, 3; 0., XIII, 8, 9; Okla., X. 12; S. C., X, 1; Tenn., II, 28; Tex., VIII, 1; Utah, XIII, 12; Va., XIII, 170; Wis., VIII, 1.

222.

Poll Tax.

223. Income Tax.

224. Inheritance

Tax.

In North Carolina the tax must not fall upon the income from taxed property. In South Carolina the permission is for a graduated tax on incomes. In Tennessee it is authorized only on incomes derived from stocks and bonds not taxed ad valorem. In Virginia the permission extends only to incomes in excess of $600. Wisconsin is the only state which has made the income tax successful as a source of revenue-a result generally attributed to its administration by the state tax commission and assessment by employees of the commission appointed after competitive civil service examinations. Only four others of the states constitutionally permitted to do so at present levy an income tax. Among the thirty-six states which do not expressly authorize it, the income tax is in use only in Mississippi, though Massachusetts taxes certain incomes as personal property.

8

The income tax is one of the most approved of modern revenue producers. The careful administration of the federal income tax should facilitate state administration and encourage the adoption of the tax by the states.

The taxation of the right of inheritance is expressly authorized by five constitutions." Virginia1 recognizes it by providing that it shall apply to legatees or devisees whose property is otherwise exempt, and Alabama' by limiting such taxation to collateral succession and to two and one-half per cent. of the value of the estate. Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma expressly authorize the taxation of both direct and collateral succession at graduated rates. In Ohio at least half of the tax must be returned to the government of the locality where it originated. Louisiana forbids a rate higher than three per cent. and exempts $10,000 in the case of direct heirs and limits the rate to ten per cent. upon collaterals. Bequests to educational and other institutions, furthermore, are exempt and all of the proceeds of the inheritance tax go to the support of public schools; but the tax must not be levied when the property has borne its just proportion of taxes prior to its passing-a clause apparently

"N. C., Okla., S. C., Va.

Income tax in harmony with tendency throughout world:
Income Tax, 642.

Seligman, The

Ariz., IX, 12; La., 235, 236; N. H., II, 6; O., XII, 7, 9; Okla., X, 12.

1XIII, 183.

2XI, 219.

well-calculated to render nugatory the entire tax provision. New Hampshire imposes no limitations upon its authorization of the tax.

All of these states, except Alabama, impose inheritance taxes; they do not, in every instance, however, take full advantage of their constitutional authority. Thus Ohio does not tax successions to direct heirs, nor collateral successions of less value than $200. Of the forty-one states whose constitutions make no mention of the matter, thirty-three make the inheritance tax a part of their revenue systems.

In regard to the proposal to obtain all the revenue needed for the support of all governmental activity by means of the taxation of land values--the so-called "single tax"-the constitutions are silent save that Ohio forbids the use of the initiative or referendum for the passage of a law authorizing it. A few cities, however, for example Pittsburgh, tax land at a higher rate than improvements and the very earnest agitation that is being carried on in favor of the gradual adoption of the single tax appears to be receiving the approval of a widening circle of students."

5

While the preceding paragraphs by no means exhaust the objects and kinds of taxation provided for in the state constitutions, they take note of all the important ones. Mention must now be made of constitutional exemptions, of which the variety is extensive. Armories, cemeteries, family supplies," specified amounts of personal property ranging from $100 to $1,000,2 fruit and nut trees, widows' property and wearing apparel

All save Fla., Ga., Ind., Miss., Nev., N. M., R. I., S. C. *II, 1e.

See Haig, op. cit.

For the argument against the single tax, see, e. g., Seligman, Essays, ch. 3. The classic advocacy of the single tax is found in Henry George's Progress and Poverty; see, also, Post, L. F., The Taxation of Land Values; Fillebrown, C. B., The A. B. C. of Taxation; Shearman, T. G., Natural Taxation. Mr. A. N. Young, of Princeton, has recently written a doctorial dissertation on the history of the single tax movement in the United States, which will shortly issue from the press. See, also, Yetta Scheftel's The Taxation of Land Value: A Study of Certain Discriminatory Taxes on Lands (Hart, Schaffner & Marks prize paper, 1915); and J. H. Gilbert's Single-Tar Movement in Oregon, XXXI, Political Science Quarterly, 25.

La., 230.

sib., 22 other states, some mandatory, others permissive.

"Tex., VIII, 19; revocable by two-thirds vote of the legislature.

Cal., XIII, 10% (to householders).

2Tenn., II, 28.

Cal., XIII, 12% (time of planting in orchard till 4 years old).
Ariz., IX, 2; Fla., IX, 9.

N. C., V, 5.

225.

Single Tax.

226. Exemptions.