Considerations of
practical efficiency make it necessary that the tax should be imposed
exclusively by the Federal government. State inheritance taxes,
sufficiently large to accomplish the desirable result, will be evaded by
change of residence to another state. A Federal tax could be raised to a
much higher level without prompting the two possible methods of
evasion--one of which would be the legal transfer of the property during
lifetime, and the other a complete change of residence to some foreign
country. This second method of evasion would not constitute a serious
danger, because of the equally severe inheritance laws of foreign
countries. The tax at its highest level could be placed without danger
of evasion at as much as twenty per cent. The United Kingdom now raises
almost $100,000,000 of revenue from the source; and a slightly increased
scale of taxation might yield double that amount to the American
Treasury, a part of which could be turned into the state Treasuries.
There has been associated with the graduated inheritance tax the plan of
a graduated income tax; but the graduated income tax would serve the
proposed object both less efficiently and less equitably.
Pages:
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813