PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 381 



greatly increases tlie difficulty of assessing large incomes at their true 

 value. 



In support of this view lie submits in general terms tlie following 

 results of liis careful examinations in Prussia, Saxony, and England : 

 In Prussia, where incomes above one hundred dollars were taxed, 

 for the year selected by M. Beaulieu, about one fourth of the people 

 were entirely exempt. Of the rest, thirty-five thirty-sixths paid on 

 incomes of from one hundred dollars to seven hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars. Only one person out of forty-three had more than seven hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars income. Only a little over four per cent of the 

 total income of the country belonged to persons having an income of 

 from $4,000 to $20,000, and only 1.7 per cent to those having over 

 $20,000 income. 



In Saxony one fifth of the total incomes belonged to persons hav- 

 ing less than one hundred and fifteen dollars yearly. The incomes 

 of those having less than four hundred and seventy-five dollars each 

 aggregated about two thirds of the total income. The great incomes, 

 exceeding $25,000 to the person, belonged to seventy-three indi- 

 viduals, and comprised less than one and a half per cent of the total. 



In England incomes under one hundred and sixty pounds, 

 or eight hundred dollars, are not taxed. In the year selected by 

 M. Leroy-Beaulieu 381,000 persons paid income taxes of a total 

 of $750,000,000. Of the contributors 342,000, or about nine tenths, 

 paid on incomes of less than $3,000, but it is noticeable that they 

 were taxed on not much more than a third of the total amount. 

 Thus nearly two thirds of the taxable income belonged to 39,000 

 persons. One fifth of the total incomes assessed belonged to 1,222 

 persons, with an income of over $50,000 each. 



It will be seen that there is a striking difference in the results 

 shoA\Ti by M. Leroy-Beaulieu's figures in Germany and England. 

 ]\duch of this difference is due to the nature of the laws, by which all 

 small incomes in England are free from taxation, but a part of it is 

 to be attributed to the larger fortunes in England. 



Italy. — There is no income tax in Italy in the sense in which 

 that term is used in England and the United States, but there is a 

 so-called professional income tax which Avas by an old law fixed at 

 seventeen per cent on half the estimated income, and which has been 

 somewhat increased by a new law in which there are variations made 

 according to the sources of income. While Italy is, in fact, poten- 

 tially one of the richest countries in Europe, and in ancient times 

 was so regarded, its name to a certain extent has come to be synony- 

 mous with poverty. The explanation of this is that its government is 

 prodigal and dishonest; and in gathering its income the dishonesty 

 of its officials causes its taxation to fall most oppressively on the 



