FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 503 
EFFECT OF TAXATION ON THE PRACTICE OF FORESTRY 
There appears to be general satisfaction with the Swedish tax 
system as applied to forests, in spite of the complicated method of 
determining income and value, and of calculating the various taxes. 
The deferred nature of forest income is recognized in the communal 
income-real estate tax. The law stipulates that the tax base for forest 
erowing stock be a smaller portion of the assessed value than for other 
property. For most other kinds of property, including forest land, 
the tax base is 0.06 percent of the assessed value, but for forest 
erowing stock the tax base is 0.04 percent of the assessed value. In - 
order to compensate for this reduced annual taxation of the growing 
stock, a forest excise tax is levied on the stumpage value of timber cut. 
The excise tax rate amounts to one-fourth of the current 5-year 
average communal income-real estate tax rate. This tax favors the 
building up of an adequate growing stock since it is relatively lightest 
in respect to forests with the lowest ratios of volume cut to volume 
on hand. 
NORWAY * 
GOVERNMENTAL AND TAX STRUCTURE 
The Kingdom of Norway is located in the western portion of the 
Scandinavian Peninsula. It. covers a land area of 120,000 square 
miles, and has a population (1928) of 2,811,000, of which approxi- 
mately 2,000,000 (72 percent) live in the rural districts (280, pp. 3-4). 
For purposes of civil administration the country is divided into 20 
provinces or districts (fylke), of which 2 are city provinces (Oslo and 
Bergen). The rural section is divided into 675 rural communes 
(herreder) and 65 urban communes (bykommuner). There are also 
753 districts for purposes of tax collection which are superimposed 
upon the communes. The communes include within their boundaries 
1,016 parishes, 766 school districts, and 800 districts for the care of 
the poor (280, p. 1). 
The tax structure may best be described by showing the place of the 
various kinds of taxes in the entire tax system of the National Govern- 
ment, the provinces (districts), and the communes. The taxes levied 
by the Norwegian National Government for the fiscal year 1927-28 
were as shown in table 142 (280, pp. 206-207). 
) TaBue 142.—Tazes levied by the Norwegian National Government, 1927-28 
Amount of levy 
Tax 
Kroner ! Dollars 
Income and property taxes: 
Ordinary income and property tax_...------.--------------------------- 89, 988, 000 24, 117, 000 
HM xtraordinany/ Property; tax. sas oes ee ls ee ee ee 12, 538, 000 3, 360, 000 
A NOY aa es AU SR ARS A PS ISAS SL ly A RC alee ee i coe Ma ln ye CN ae 102, 526, 000 27, 477, 000 
Consumption taxes: 
CUSTOINS sree eee ta eew erat erat dee ae NL Se NM yo! OU) ee ee oe 118, 376, 000 31, 725, 000 
Other-consumptionitaxesseer ss. es ce a Wee ee So eee 92, 350, 000 24, 750, 000 
OT OU cl eae See Me LEI CH aie Hee ey bari peer Ln AL Pe Me 210, 726, 000 56, 475, 000 
Other taxes and dues (including inheritance tax and departmental and legal 
CED Yoo a a hg eh a A UI INI gD EE 22, 675, 000 6, 077, 000 
Granditotalesems ke we Ae Oe ie el Sn ae OE ee ee 335, 927, 000 90, 029, 000 
1 The converting factor used is $0.26799, which is the gold parity value (in 1933) of the Norwegian krone. 
61 See footnote 47 on p. 493. 
