416 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. 8. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
justly. The burden of taxes imposed only at death should not be 
dependent upon an accidental fact, such as the year of death. A 
person should be able to predict with some degree of accuracy the 
amount which his estate will have to pay upon his death. This fact 
is especially true in the case the estate consists of a forest property 
continuing through several generations of owners. 
It is desirable that estate tax laws be substituted for the succession 
tax laws now in vogue in nearly all of the States. This recommenda- 
tion is made for the purpose of simplification in administration and 
to enable States to take full advantage of the credit granted by the 
Federal estate tax law. If it is desired to make distinction between 
different classes of beneficiaries, this may be accomplished by providing 
for exemptions of various amounts depending upon the relationship 
between beneficiary and testator. 
As death taxes are a levy upon capital at progressive rates and are 
assessed and collected at irregular and unpredictable intervals, the 
equitable distribution and justice of them cannot be measured by the 
same scales as used in the case of the property tax and the income 
tax. Their future effect upon an individual forest property is not 
reflected in its value, but their effect upon the future of the general 
business of forest growing can be foreseen. As a matter of public 
policy, death taxes should be adjusted so that they will not dis- 
courage anyone from embarking upon this business. 
SEVERANCE TAXES 
The term ‘“‘severance tax’”’ is a collective one embracing several 
types of tax applied specifically to natural resources, such as minerals, 
gas, oil, timber, and the like, at the time of their severance from a 
state of nature. The tax may take the form of a gross-income tax 
or a net-income tax or a specific tax on the number, quantity, weight, 
or other measure of the particular class of product being severed. 
Whatever the form of tax, it will fall into one or the other and some- 
times into both of two general categories, namely, those levied in 
whole or in part in place of the ordinary property tax and those levied 
in addition to the property tax. Formerly only the first type was 
of importance. This type came into use as an expedient for getting 
around the technical difficulties inherent in the assessment of certain 
classes of property, particularly minerals, and for relieving the local 
assessors of work for which they were especially unqualified. Thus 
as early as 1846, Michigan, while it could not abclish entirely the 
assessment and taxation of iron and copper mines under the prop- 
erty tax, limited the property tax on such wealth to the revenue needs 
of the local communities and imposed in its place, for all other 
revenue purposes, a specific tax on the value of the products of such 
mines. In 1853 this was changed to a tax of so much a ton on the 
output of coal, iron, and copper mines. From then on many other 
States with mineral and other natural resources adopted this expedi- 
ent. In late years however many of these States have abandoned 
the severance tax and gone back to the property tax, but with expert 
centralized assessment substituted for the usual local assessment. 
The legislatures of these States have considered the property tax the 
fairer and more equitable form of taxation. 
