474 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



than in the case of property taxation. " Another peculiar feature 

 of the Swiss taxes is that the progressive rate is applied separately 

 to the income tax and the property tax. A taxpayer with twenty- 

 five hundred francs income from property and twenty-five hun- 

 dred francs from labor will be assessed separately for each, and 

 will pay less than if he had five thousand francs income either 

 from property alone or labor alone." (Seligman.) 



There is, furthermore, no pretense of uniformity in the differ- 

 ent Cantons in the practical application of the progressive system. 

 In fact, it is stated that in no two Cantons are the rates of tax and 

 the classification of the subjects of taxation identical. In the tax- 

 ation of incomes the average rate does not generally exceed four 

 or five per cent ; but in some Cantons the rates rule as high as 

 seven and even ten per cent. Where income exists without a cor- 

 responding capital, as from wages, earnings, and life annuities, an 

 exemption is generally made of eighty dollars a head for each 

 person dependent on the head of the family for support. Thus a 

 bachelor earning one thousand dollars a year would pay about 

 fifteen dollars, while a married man with the same income and 

 twelve children would pay nothing. 



Taxes on inheritances and successions in Switzerland — which 

 are levied in most or all of the Cantons — are characterized by ex- 

 treme variations on rates, ranging from a very small percentage 

 in some cantons to twenty and even thirty per cent in others, in 

 the cases of the remote, or non-relatives. 



Apart from the federal and cantonal systems of taxation in 

 Switzerland, there is a third system which is regarded as distinct- 

 ive, and under the name of local embraces special and separate 

 assessments for the purpose of defraying local or communal ex- 

 penditures — i. e., police, preservation of forests, roads, schools, and 

 the like, A leading characteristic of such taxes is, that they do 

 not embrace the idea of progressive or graduated assessments; 

 and in their chief incidence on local tangible property do not per- 

 mit any material reduction of appraisements, or valuations on 

 account of any incumbent indebtedness — mortgages and the like 

 — as is the practice in the appraisements of like property for can- 

 tonal taxation. A household tax and a poll tax are also, to some 

 extent, features of Swiss local taxation. 



Of the varied subjects of taxation from which the Swiss Can- 

 tons mainly derive their revenue, the following classification and 

 exhibit of those of the Canton of Vaud in 1887, the third largest 

 canton in respect to population, though not in area, will serve as 

 an illustration : 



1. Public lands, forests, and salt monopoly, 



2. Licenses to retail tobacco, wine, and spirits, 



3. Taxes on dogs, saddle horses, carriages, and billiard saloons. 



