FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 429 
may be assessed under schedule D, while those woodlands from 
which a profit is obtained are assessed under schedule B. 
Finally, if a loss is incurred with respect to woodlands under sched- 
ule D, the income tax and surtax may be recovered on a correspond- 
ing amount of income on which tax has been paid. 
Thus an owner who has an income of £60,000 ($292,000) a year 
would pay income tax and surtax at the rate of 12s. 6d. in the pound 
(62.5 percent) on the last £10,000 ($48,700) of income. If he spends 
£1,000 ($4,870) in planting up an area of land, he can obtain a return 
of income tax and surtax amounting to £625 ($3,040) and the net 
cost of the plantation is only £375 ($1,830). He may at the same 
time be drawing income from other woodlands on which he pays 
tax under schedule B on an amount far below the actual income. 
Once an owner has elected to be taxed under schedule D in respect 
of any area of woodland, he must continue to be taxed under this 
schedule so long as he remains in occupation, and he must pay tax 
on the actual net receipts from thinnings and other fellings. But 
when a change occurs in the occupation of the woodlands, as by sale 
or bequest, the new occupier is at liberty to be assessed under either 
schedule B or schedule D.** By electing to be assessed under sched- 
ule B, a new occupier can receive the proceeds from felling and pay 
tax on one-third of the annual value which will represent a very small 
sum in proportion to the actual income. 
Inquiries have elicited the information that, presumably through 
ignorance, a great many owners who are making plantations fail to 
take advantage of remissions that may be obtained under schedule D. 
Others have made the mistake of placing the whole of their wood- 
lands under schedule D. No figures are available of the total area 
assessed under the 2 schedules, but in the 2 areas previously cited the 
proportion of woodland assessed under schedule D was: 
Area (1) 1,830 out of 15,032 acres, or 12.2 percent. 
Area (2) 1,989 out of 32,687 acres, or 6.1 percent. 
DEATH TAXES 
Death taxes are chargeable to the capital value of an estate when 
it passes by inheritance; they comprise what are known as the 
“estate duty”’, ‘“‘succession duty”’, and “‘legacy duty.” 
Estate duty, or the estate tax, is levied on the market value of all 
property, real or personal, settled and free, passing at death. Stocks 
and shares are valued at the market price at date of death or, if 
they are not quoted, at a valuation based on local inquiries. Real 
property and such personal property as furniture and money in the 
bank or house are valued by professional appraisers or, if the estate is 
large, by the valuation department of the inland revenue. The 
basis of valuation is the price obtainable in the open market if sold 
at the time of death in the most advantageous manner. The last 
provision has been so interpreted that agricultural estates have been 
valued as if subdivided into lots. It has been claimed that in certain 
cases this method has resulted in overvaluing the estate as a whole. 
The rates of estate duty provided in the Finance Act of 1930 are 
steeply graduated from 1 percent on the whole value of estates 
32 As this point was not quite clear, the forestry commission addressed a letter (Nov. 3, 1920) on the subject 
to the board of inland revenue. Under date of Dec. 15, 1920, the board of inland revenue replied ‘‘if there 
is a change in the occupation of woodlands, either on the owner’s death or on a sale of the woodlands, the 
new occupier will be at liberty to elect to be assessed to income tax either under schedule B or schedule D. fh 
