PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 473 



for the effective transfer of property by its owner in anticipation 

 of death.* 



Considering that a greater equality of fortune prevails in 

 Switzerland than in almost any other country, it is somewhat 

 remarkable that it has taken lead of all countries in instituting a 

 system of progressive or graduated taxation, and has made it ap- 

 plicable not only to property but also to income and inheritance 

 taxes. 



Graduated taxation now exists in a majority of the Swiss can- 

 tons, and in only a few is there any prescribed limit to the pro- 

 gressive rate of assessment. The graduation is applied in dif- 

 ferent ways. In some Cantons, estates (real and personal) are 

 classified according to their amounts. The rate of the tax is the 

 same, but a varying proportion of the value of the estate is ex- 

 empted. Thus, in the Canton of Zurich the tax is levied on five 

 tenths of a property valued at four thousand dollars, six tenths 

 on six thousand dollars, seven tenths on ten thousand dollars, 

 eight tenths on twenty thousand dollars, nine tenths on forty 

 thousand dollars, and on the entire estate when exceeding forty 

 thousand dollars in value. In other Cantons, as Aargau and 

 Schaffhausen, an addition of varying percentage is made to the 

 property tax according as the tax at the normal or ordinary rate 

 exceeds a certain specified amount. Thus, in the former Canton, 

 every one who is assessed for a tax of from forty to seventy 

 francs in amount must pay five per cent additional ; from seventy 

 to one hundred francs, ten per cent additional, and so on, until 

 those who are assessed at over five hundred francs pay thirty- 

 three per cent additional. In the latter Canton every one assessed 

 at over five hundred francs pays fifty per cent additional. In 

 other words, the tax is graded and made progressive by adding a 

 certain percentage, not to the taxable property, but to the amount 

 of the tax according to a proportional ratio. 



In some of the Cantons, as Vaud, Basel, and Zug, real prop- 

 erty is divided into three classes : (a) under five thousand dollars, 

 (b) five thousand to twenty thousand dollars, (c) twenty thou- 

 sand dollars and upward, and a land tax which is enacted each 

 year falls on these three classes in the proportions of 1, l, and 2. 



In some of the Cantons personal estate is divided into seven 

 classes and taxed in the proportions of 1, 1, 2, 2}, 3, 3, 4 ; the tax 

 being levied on the capital and not on the annual value of the 

 estate. In most of the Swiss Cantons the progressive or grad- 

 uated system of taxation in respect to property is also made ap- 

 plicable to incomes, inheritances, and bequests ; and as a rule the 

 progressive scale in these respects is more sharply graduated 



* Essays on Taxation, Prof. E. R. A. Seligman, p. 387. 

 vol. xlix. 39 



