The Income Tax: A Study of the History, Theory, and Practice of Income Taxation at Home and AbroadOriginally published: New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914. xi, 743 pp. Reprint of the second edition, which includes a new chapter on the income tax of 1913. Seligman argues persuasively that graduated income taxes distribute the burden of taxation with greater justice than other systems. After he sets out the fundamental problem of the concept of income taxation, Seligman enhances his theoretical argument with a historical examination of income taxes in Europe and the United States. With a useful index and a thorough bibliography. Edwin R.A. Seligman [1861-1939] was an eminent economist and authority on tax issues. He was admitted to the New York State bar in 1884 and in the same year received an appointment as lecturer in the political science department at Columbia University, where he later became a professor of political economy and finance. Seligman was a cofounder of the American Economic Association, serving as Its president from 1902-1904, and was later president of the National Tax Association (1913-1915). He served as an adviser to New York State and New York City tax commissions and acted as consultant to the League of Nations (1922-1923) and the government of Cuba in 1931. He was the editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences and editor of the Columbia University series Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. He was the author of numerous titles on taxation and economics including The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation (1892; 3rd ed., 1910), Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice (1894; 2nd ed. 1908), Economic Interpretation of History (1902; 2nd ed. 1907), Principles of Economics (1907), Studies in Public Finance (1925) and Essays in Economics (1925). "Professor Seligman's advocacy of the income tax in the various papers which were incorporated in [this book] was an important factor in educating the American public to the point where the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment and of the law of 1913 was possible." |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 81
... derived from hard personal work to be put exactly on a par with an income of one thousand dollars derived from an inheritance , or from a lucky turn in the market ? The further question arises as to whether different amounts of income ...
... derived from different sources often con- notes a varying degree of ability to pay . We are therefore logically forced to the conclusion that the relative equality , or the uniformity which is demanded by justice , is not only ...
... derived in the one case primarily from personal exertion , and in the other case without personal exertion . All manner of terms have been applied to this distinction . Thus temporary incomes are contrasted with permanent , labor with ...
... derived solely from an individual's own strenuous personal exertions ought not to be treated in the same way as the in- come which comes , let us say , from government bonds or from the securities of a corporation in the management of ...
... derived from property of a certain class , as virtually to confiscate that kind of prop- erty . This is , however , a danger against which we can hope to guard by a reasonable public sentiment and by the com- mon sense of the community ...
Contents
Switzerland | 355 |
PART II | 365 |
CHAPTER I | 367 |
The Development in New England | 372 |
The Practical Workings of the | 381 |
329 | 401 |
THE INCOME TAX IN THE CONFEDERACY | 482 |
CHAPTER IV | 493 |
57 | |
89 | |
116 | |
122 | |
126 | |
128 | |
136 | |
The Select Committee of 1851 | 145 |
3 Pitts Conversion to the Income | 149 |
A Decade of Quiet | 155 |
FRANCE | 156 |
PAGE | 158 |
The Committee of 1861 | 161 |
CHAPTER III | 167 |
The Growing Permanence of the Tax 18741894 | 172 |
The Emergence of the Newer Problems 18941904 | 179 |
The Origin of the | 181 |
The Departmental Committee of 1904 | 185 |
The Select Committee of 1906 | 196 |
The Adoption of Differentiation in 1907 | 202 |
Conclusion | 213 |
THE INCOME TAX ON THE CONTINENT | 223 |
The Movement toward the Income | 230 |
From the Revolution of 1848 to the FrancoPrussian | 236 |
Preliminary | 273 |
The Revolution of 1848 | 277 |
The FrancoPrussian | 283 |
From Gambetta to the Périn Amendment 18711878 | 288 |
From Dauphins Bill to the ExtraParliamentary Committee 18871894 6 From the ExtraParliamentary Committee to the End of the Century 18941899 | 293 |
From Caillauxs First Ministry to his Second | 306 |
The Income Tax Bill of 1907 | 310 |
10 The Provisions of the Income Tax Bill as Adopted | 321 |
Conclusion | 325 |
CHAPTER III | 329 |
Italy The Historical Development | 338 |
Italy The Actual Conditions | 345 |
Italy The Question of Fraud | 352 |
The Discussion in Congress | 499 |
An Analysis of the | 508 |
The Alleged Shortcomings of the | 518 |
Conclusion | 529 |
The Economic Meaning of Direct Taxes | 535 |
The Historical Antecedents of the Direct Tax Clause | 540 |
The Introduction of the Direct Tax Clause | 548 |
The Purposes of the Direct Tax Clause | 555 |
The Constitutional Meaning of Direct Taxes | 559 |
The Use of the Term in the Constitutional Convention | 564 |
The Earlier Decisions of the Supreme Court | 571 |
The Income Tax Cases of 1895 | 576 |
The Dissenting Opinions | 583 |
The Effect of the Decisions | 586 |
CHAPTER VI | 590 |
The Meaning of the Amendment | 597 |
The Effect on the Borrowing Power of the States | 604 |
The Immunity of State and Municipal Bonds from Taxation | 615 |
The Question of Uniformity | 621 |
Conclusion | 626 |
A PRACTICABLE PROGRAMME | 629 |
Is an Income Tax Desirable ? | 631 |
Shall the Income Tax be a State or a Federal Tax? | 642 |
How shall the Income Tax be Administered? | 658 |
APPENDIX THE INCOME TAX OF 1913 | 675 |
1 Who is Liable to the Income Tax? | 676 |
What is Taxable Income? | 677 |
The Tax Rates | 686 |
Stoppage at Source | 692 |
Other Administrative Features | 699 |
Conclusion | 701 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 705 |
INDEX | 733 |
338 | 738 |
535 | 740 |