At the present moment the Commissariat of Finance has entered, in the domain of direct taxation reforms, upon the road toward a complete revolution in the old system. The central tax board is now, for the transitional period, working on a project of income and property taxation, the introduction of which will liquidate all the existing direct taxes, without exception. The single tax which is being proposed, is so constructed that it covers the very property of the citizen, i.e., it constitutes a demand that the citizen yield that part of his savings which is above a certain standard, etc.
In closing the review of the activity of the Commissariat of Finance during the two years of its existence, one must note briefly the great purely organizational work, conducted by it on a natural as well as a local scale.
The reform has been definitely directed towards simplifying the apparatus and reducing its personnel as far as possible.
Finally, with this reform, the Commissariat of Finance has been organized in the following manner: the central office, the central budget-accounting board (former People’s Bank and Department of State Treasury) and, finally, the central tax board (former Department of Assessed Taxes and of Unassessed Taxes). Upon the same pattern are also being modeled the local financial bodies.
DOCUMENT IV—A, B, C
From Economic Life, (Nov. 7, 1919). The official organ
of the Supreme Council of National Economy
Finance, food, trade, and industry