PENDING PROBLEMS IN PUBLIC FINANCE 199 



all, but by the occupier. Even in the United States the tax is 

 assessed on the parcel of real estate and not on the individual who 

 owns it. Whether the owner or some one else pays the tax is imma- 

 terial, and if the tax is not paid, no regard is paid to the owner and 

 the land itself is sold. We could get scarcely further away from the 

 old idea of individual taxation. The tax is a tax on the thing and 

 not on the person. 



In the other so-called direct taxes, a similar development is to be 

 observed. The business taxes in Europe are levied upon the business 

 as such and not upon the owner of the business. The inheritance 

 tax is levied upon the inheritance and not upon the individual who 

 receives the inheritance. The general land tax in England - - the 

 last vestige of the medieval general property tax upon individuals - 

 has actually become a redeemable rent charge. Even the income 

 tax, which in theory is assuredly personal, has, as we have already 

 stated, almost completely lost its individual character and has become 

 in great measure, a tax upon the thing affording the income rather 

 than upon the person receiving the income. In the United States 

 the so-called personal tax, that is, the tax on individuals according 

 to their personal property, is fast becoming a farce in all the older 

 centers. It is especially noteworthy that in the one place where a 

 recent intelligent effort has been made to reform the personal property 

 tax - - the city of Chicago it is becoming in effect a tax upon the 

 thing rather than upon the person, and is being limited to the business 

 capital, assessed upon groups or classes of business men rather than 

 upon the individuals composing the classes. The problem is really 

 a deeper one than the German scientists have usually recognized. 

 It is not so much a conflict between a tax upon produce and a tax 

 upon income as it is a conflict between the social and the individual 

 bases of taxation. 



In the fourth place, we find everywhere an increasing importance 

 attached to corporations as the source of revenue. In Europe this 

 process is somewhat concealed because of the inclusion of the revenue 

 from corporations in the income tax, just as in many of the younger 

 American commonwealths the revenues figure in the general property 

 tax. In the older states corporation taxes are put into a separate 

 category, and in some states, as in New York, they are even called 

 indirect taxes in contradistinction to the direct or property taxes. 

 Everywhere, however, they form a problem of increasing importance 

 and present an admirable example of what is meant by taxation from 

 a social rather than from an individual point of view. Taxation of 

 the corporation does not mean taxation of the security holder who 

 has purchased the stock or bond from the original holder. 



The main outlines of the development of the immediate future, 

 throughout the world, are thus fairly clear. Each country will con- 



