The Theory And Practice Of Income Tax

The author analyses with a critical approach the basic principles of English tax law and practice and their modfication and application in a newly independent Commonwealth country, and he has regard to the economic and fiscal effects of such laws and practices.

Seligman, Edwin R.A. The Income Tax: A Study of the History, Theory, and Practice of Income Taxation at Home and Abroad. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged with a New Chapter. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914. xi, 743 pp. Reprinted 2004 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 2003052763. ISBN 1-58477-385-5. Cloth. $140. * Reprint of second edition, which includes a new chapter on the income tax of 1913. Seligman [1861-1939], an eminent economist and authority on tax issues, argued that graduated income taxes distribute the burden of taxation with greater justice than other systems. This was a persuasive idea. "In fact, 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": Columbia Law Review 15:292 cited in Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University (1953) 852. After he sets out the fundamental problem of the concept of income taxation, Seligman enhances his theoretical argument with a historical examination of income tax in Europe and the United States. In Part I he looks at the income tax in the middle ages, in England, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. In Part II he covers the history of the income tax in the United States from the New England colonies through the income tax of 1913, and includes discussion of the historical antecedents of the Direct Tax Clause, a description of the historical context of the Civil War income tax and the income tax in the Confederacy, and a consideration of the constitutionality of the income tax. With a useful index and a thorough bibliography.

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Excerpt from The Income Tax: A Study of the History, Theory and Practice of Income Taxation at Home and Abroad It may appear to some that too much attention has been paid to the historical side of the subject. It seemed to me, however, that the most important lesson to be learned from experience was the gradual transition in public sentiment from a position of uncompromising hostility to one of virtual acquiescence. Such a lesson, however, can be impressed only after a full and thorough presentation of the facts. This, apart from the inherent interest of the matter, must be my excuse for attempting an exhaustive statement, not only of the legislation and of the parliamentary history, but also of the scientific as well as of the more ephemeral literature of the topic, in the most important countries from which we have a lesson to learn. In this investigation, especially so far as England is concerned. Virtually no help was secured from any existing investigation, and I have therefore been compelled to make a pioneer study, with all its inevitable defects. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.