PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 475 



4. A tax on all transfers of real property {droit de mutation). 



5. An annual tax on tlie capital value of real property {impot 

 fonder). 



6. An annual tax on the capital of all personal property and 

 on incomes {impot 7nobilier). 



The last three taxes are the most important and productive, 

 their united product being equal to about nine tenths of the entire 

 revenue. 



Concerning the results of this novel and complicated system 

 of taxation in Switzerland there is great diversity of opinion. 

 That it is not uniform throughout the comparatively small terri- 

 torial divisions of the country to which it has been made applica- 

 ble, only a very few Cantons being reported as in agreement ; that 

 no fixed rules governing progression or gradation in assessments 

 have been generally agreed upon and established ; that the prac- 

 tical administration of the system is in the highest degree arbi- 

 trary; and that the ascertainment of the tax that an individual 

 or estate shall pay often involves a series of complex and difficult 

 computations and additions, are all points in respect to which 

 there is no question. 



The anomaly and gross inequity of double taxation on one and 

 the same property, contingent on the circumstance that the situs 

 of the property and the domicile of its owner are not within the 

 same territorial and governmental jurisdictions, and which is at 

 present a subject of much discussion and deprecation in the 

 United States, is also a vexing problem in the system of taxation 

 in Switzerland ; two different communes, as a rule, making de- 

 mands of a taxpayer by reason of his holding a landed estate in 

 one and residing and exercising the rights of a citizen in the 

 other, and the probability of any just and satisfactory solution of 

 this perplexing problem is as remote in one country as in the 

 other. 



Notwithstanding the above and other objectionable features, 

 the people of Switzerland appear to be generally satisfied with 

 their fiscal experiment, and thus far have exhibited but little 

 disposition to change it ; and all the most important Cantons that 

 have tested it report a steady increase in their aggregate valua- 

 tion of both property and income. Even the extreme high rates 

 of taxation assessed on large properties and incomes — amounting 

 in some Cantons almost to confiscation — have not been generally 

 regarded with disfavor, but probably for the reason that the num- 

 ber of persons in Switzerland who are liable to such assessments 

 is comparatively limited. 



On the other hand, it is contended that any fiscal gain that is 

 reported under the new system has been more than counterbal- 

 anced by depreciation in land values and injury to local trade. In 



