452 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
* GENERAL INCOME TAX 
The general income tax (impdét general sur le revenu) does not 
affect forest property specifically, for, as previously explained, it is 
a personal tax and may take a low, moderate, or high proportion 
of the income from a forest according to the circumstances of the 
owner. This tax corresponds to the surtax on ‘ndividua!s under the 
Federal income tax of the United States, except that capital gains 
resulting from saes of properties which have appreciated since 
acquis.tion are not as a rule subject to the French income tax. 
REGISTRATION TAXES AND TRANSFERS 
The taxes which have been most burdensome to forestry in recent 
years—those most complained of by the forest interests—are the 
taxes on transfers of real estate between living persons and on 
inheritances. 
If a forest or part of a forest is sold or transferred as a gift, the 
transfer taxes place a premium on the cutting of the timber. If 
the forest is to be maintained and only the increase cut, it must 
be transferred intact as real estate and a tax must be paid on the 
value of the entire forest at the high rates applicable to real estate 
transfers, at least 12 percent. If, on the other hand, the forest is 
to be destructively cut, the high rate of tax may be paid on the 
and value only, and a relative y low rate on the timber value, since 
the timber in that case can be transferred as personal property 
separately from the land. Therefore, when a forest s put on the 
market, the wood merchant or real estate agent who counts on de- 
stroying the forest has, on account of this d fference in tax rates, 
an initial advantage in the bidding over anyone who is interested in 
acquiring such a forest for the purpose of maintaining it in a pro- 
ductive condition. All that is necessary to obtain this advantage 
is to arrange the transfer so that the purchase of the right to cut 
the timber will appear as a separate transaction from the purchase 
of the and. 
In the case of inheritance taxes there is no distinction between 
real and personal property and therefore no direct premium on 
cutting. However, the hgh rates encourage overcutting or destruc- 
tion of forested estates because of the difficulties experienced by 
the heirs in reaizing the sums with which to pay the inheritance 
taxes. When the heirs are forced to liquidate, they are likely to 
find the high bidders to be the merchants who buy for destructive 
cutting. 
The above-described situation was improved somewhat by a 
recent law (finance law of Apr. 16, 1930, art. 15), which relieved 
forests of three-fourths of the transfer tax on sales and gifts of real 
estate on condition that the purchaser or recipient submit the forest 
or woodland transferred for 30 years to a system of normal opera- 
tion to be determined by decree, subject, in case of infraction, to 
a penalty equal to one and one-half times the reduction in tax. 
The forest service (l’administration des eaux et forets) is charged 
with the enforcement of this condit on, the Government reta ning 
a lien on the property as a guarantee of compiance. This pro- 
vision is far from satisfactory to the private forest owners and has 
been attacked vigorously (235, pp. 473-474; 236, 237). It has been 
