FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 439 
A GROUP OF PROPERTIES 
About 14,000 acres of woodlands in the south of England are 
managed by a firm of land agents. Figures were supplied showing 
the assessment for 4,173 acres belonging to eight different owners. 
On this area the average gross assessment for schedule A was just 
over 4s. ($0.97) per acre, including sporting rights. However, exclud- 
ing the sporting rights on 1,013 acres when these rights were separ- 
ately assessed, the total gross assessment amounted to £729 ($3,548). 
Deducting one-eighth for the statutory allowance for repairs and £69 
($336) for tithes, the net assessment would appear to be £569 ($2,769). 
It was returned, however, at £583 ($2,837). The schedule B assess- 
ment was £254 ($1,236), and the total amount of income tax paid 
(under schedules A and B at 4s. in the pound or 20 percent) was £167 
($813). On no estate was the maintenance claim sufficiently large to 
secure any repayment of income tax under schedule A. 
Two other areas were assessed under schedule D in place of schedule 
B. In respect of one of them, an area of 117 acres forming part of a 
woodland estate of 374 acres, income tax and surtax had been recovered 
on an average annual amount of £238 ($1,158), based on 3 successive 
years, that being the average net expenditure on the area. The other 
area comprised the whole woodland section of an estate and was 572 
acres in extent. It would have been better if only the young planta- 
tions had been put under schedule D and the old woods left under 
schedule B, but the previous agent had elected to assess the whole 
under schedule D so that no change could be made during the tenure 
of the present occupier. In respect to these 572 acres of woodland, 
income tax and surtax had been recovered on an average annual 
amount for 3 successive years of £228 ($1,110). Tax was paid under 
schedule A on each of these areas, the net assessment being £56 
($273) in the first case and £188 ($915) in the second. 
EFFECT OF TAXATION ON THE PRACTICE OF FORESTRY 
The British income tax and surtax are extremely favorable to the 
practice of forestry. A holder of forest land, as owner, is obliged to 
include in his taxable income the rental value of such land, whether 
any income is actually realized or not. However, as occupier, he is 
normally assessed under schedule B, which means that he is allowed 
to declare a conventional income fixed by rule in place of the actual 
income, and the conventional income in the case of old timber may be 
much smaller than the actual. As occupier, the forest-land owner is 
allowed to claim assessment under schedule D instead of schedule B. 
As previously explained, schedule D is a form for the declaration of 
the actual profits from businesses, professions, and miscellaneous 
sources, and in order to qualify for this privilege precise accounts must 
be kept and woodlands must be managed for commercial purposes. 
This choice operates greatly to the advantage of a woodland occupier, 
for two reasons. (1) Heis allowed to make a return on the plantations 
made since 1916 in an account separate from the remainder of the 
woodlands, so that the old woods from which a substantial income 
can be obtained are taxed on a small conventional income under 
schedule B, whereas the young plantations are taxed on the actual 
income they yield under schedule D. (2) If the young plantations 
show a loss, as they always do when the costs are all treated for tax 
