LOCAL TAXES 101 





more equitable than the present system. The 

 adoption of this plan would conform to 

 the idea that rates ought to be considered 

 as a kind of local income tax. Both land- 

 lords and tenants should be rated on their 

 incomes. If the rates are levied for purely 

 beneficial, and not for onerous purposes, the 

 distribution should be made to depend on 

 the benefit to the occupier and owner 

 respectively. 



So far as the rates are for onerous pur- 

 poses, the idea of a local income tax is 

 dominant. And so far there seems to be 

 no valid reason for supposing that the 

 tenant's income is evidenced exactly by his 

 rent. 1 



1 Final Report of the Commission on Agricultural 

 Depression (1898) C 8,540, p. 30. "Treating the 

 whole of the published accounts as if they related to 

 one business, it has been calculated that they show for 

 the twenty years, 1875-1894, an average profit equal to 

 26.66 per cent, of the amount of rent and tithes, instead of 



