4218 ([return])
[ Paul Leroy-Beaulieu," Essai sur la répartition de richesses," p. 174.]
4219 ([return])
[ Ibid., p.209: In 1878, in Paris, 74,000 houses with 1,022,539 rentals, 337,587 being for trade and commerce, and 684,952 for dwelling purposes. Among the latter, 468,641 have a locative value inferior to 300 francs a year; 74,360 are between 500 and 750 francs; 21,147 are between 750 and 1000 francs. All these lodgings are more or less exempt from the personal tax: those between 1000 and 400 francs pay it with a more or less great reduction: those under 400 francs pay nothing. Above 1000 francs, we find 17,202 apartments from between 1000 and 1250 francs; 6198 from between 1250 and 1500 francs; 21,453 from 1500 to 3000 francs. These apartments are occupied by more or less well-to-do people.—14,858 apartments above 3000 francs are occupied by the richer or the wealthy class. Among the latter 9985 are from 3000 to 6000; 3040 are from 6000 to 10,000; 1443 are from 10,000 to 20,000; 421 are above 20,000 francs. These two latter categories are occupied by the really opulent class.—According to the latest statistics, instead of 684,952 dwelling rentals there are 806,187, of which 727,419 are wholly or partly free of the personal tax. ("Situation au 1ère Janvier, 1888," report by M. Lamouroux, conseiller-municipal.)]
4220 ([return])
[ The following appropriations for 1889 are printed on my tax-bill: "To the State, 51%.; to the Department, 21%; to the commune, 25%." On business permits: "To the State, 64%.; to the Department, 12%; to the commune, 20%. The surplus of taxes is appropriated to the benevolent fund and for remission of taxes.">[
4221 ([return])
[ Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, "Traité de la science des finances," I., pp. 367-368: "In communes under 5000 inhabitants the principal of the tax on doors and windows is, for houses with one opening, 0 fr. 30 per annum; for those with four openings, 1 fr. 60." Now, "a house with five openings pays nearly nine times as much as a house with one opening." The small taxpayers are accordingly largely relieved at the expense of those who pay heavy and average taxes, the magnitude of this relief being appreciable by the following figures: In 1885, out of 8,975,166 houses, 248,352 had one opening, 1,827,104 two openings, 1,624,516 three openings, and 1,165,902 four openings. More than one-half of the houses, all of those belonging to the poor or straitened, are thus relieved, while the other half, since the tax is an impost, not a quota, but an apportionment, is overcharged as much.]
4222 ([return])
[ One result of this principle is, that the poor who are exempt from taxation or who are on the poor list have no vote, which is the case in England and in Prussia.—Through another result of the same principle, the law of May 15, 1818, in France, summoned the heaviest taxpayers, in equal number with the members of the municipal council, to deliberate with it every time that "a really urgent expenditure" obliged the commune to raise extra additional centimes beyond the usual 0 fr. 05. "Thus," says Henrion de Pancey ("Du pouvoir municipal," p.109), "the members of the municipal councils belong to the class of small land-owners, at least in a large number of communes, voted the charges without examination which only affected them insensibly."—This last refuge of distributive justice was abolished by the law of April 5, 1882.]