A certain amount of personalty was still assessed in the time of Pitt, however, as may be gathered from the following figures from the roll of the Tower Division.
"LAND-TAX." ABSTRACT OF DUPLICATES
FOR THE TOWER DIVISION
| Charge for the year 1693. 4s. Aid. | Quotas for the respective years 1698 and 1699, under 9 & 10 and 10 & 11 William III. 3s. Aid. | Quota for 1702. | Quota for 1799. | ||
| Lands, etc. | Personal Estate. | Pensions and Offices. | |||
| £ s. d. | £ s. d. | £ s. d. | £ s. d. | £ s. d. | £ s. d. |
| 34,057 5 5 | 25,542 19 0¾ | 34,041 12 10 | 29,964 15 0½ | 227 15 5 | 2,320 2 4½ |
This specimen also shows how the original assessments of 1692 were preserved until the time when, in 1798, over one hundred years after, Pitt made provisions for the redemption of the old tax, and simultaneously introduced a new Property and Income Tax based upon better assessments.
Unaware of the real nature of the so-called "Land-Tax" and as it would also appear, of the present "Property and Income Tax," it is often suggested by fiscal reformers that the old Land-Tax of 1692 should be reimposed upon present land revenues. Those who make the suggestion do not realize that what they desire has already been done and is actually in practice at this moment.
The old "Land-Tax" and the present "Income" Tax thus compare:—
| The "Land-Tax" of 1692. | The Present "Property and Income" Tax. |
|---|---|
| Section 2: Every Person ... having any estate in ready monies or in any debts owing to them or having any estate in goods, wares, merchandise or other chattels, or personal estate whatsoever ... shall yield and pay four shillings in the pound according to the true yearly value thereof. | Schedule D taxes the profits of trades and professions and from various forms of personal property. |
| Section 3: All persons holding any public office or employment of profit (except military and naval officers) and their clerks, etc., shall pay four shillings in the pound. | Schedule E taxes the salaries of all who hold public offices or employments, whether they be officials or clerks. |
| Section 4: And to the End, a further aid and supply for their Majesties' occasions may be raised by a charge upon all lands, tenements and hereditaments ... by an equal pound rate of four shillings ... be it enacted that all manors, messuages, lands and tenements, and all quarries, mines, etc., tithes, tolls, etc. ... shall be charged with the sum of four shillings for every twenty shillings of the full yearly value. | Schedule A taxes the income from "all manors, messuages, lands and tenements, and all quarries, mines, etc., tithes, tolls, etc." |
It is also remarkable that whereas Land and Houses are placed in Schedule A, the first branch of our Income Tax, the so-called Land-Tax of 1692 placed lands and houses in its third category. The Act of 1692, moreover, as we have seen, made the taxation of personalty its first aim, and brought in a charge on land, houses and other fixed property to make up any deficiency.
With our modern Income Tax, fortunately, personalty does not escape as it seems to have done in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it is still true that a great deal of personal income evades taxation, while it is impossible for fixed property to elude the assessors.
I have taken the trouble to set out the foregoing details at some length because the fact that Schedule A of the Income Tax, like Section 4 of the Act of 1692, is a Land-Tax, appears to have escaped the attention of many of those who desire to tax the unearned increment which so often accrues to the owners of land. At the present moment, the owners of land contribute 14 pence in the pound of its annual revenue to Imperial Taxation under Schedule A. In the case of a small landowner with an income of £750 a year that may be enough. In the case of a great landowner with a rent roll of £20,000 a year it is certainly too little. If, then, we would justly tax the income of those who derive unearned revenue from land, we must graduate our income tax. In doing so, fortunately, we shall not tax merely one form of unearned increment. The conclusive proof of unearned income is the possession of a great income. Whether it arises from rent, or from interest, or from the direct taxation of labour is a secondary consideration. Whether its owner has bought broad acres with profits drawn from the exertions of others, or whether he has bought railway stock or foreign investments with the proceeds of the sale of broad acres, we need not inquire. The great income, the fact that the individual who receives it is one of the small number of people who enjoy one-third of the entire income of the country, is sufficient proof of "ability" to contribute generously to the revenues of what should be the rich government of a rich State. And it is difficult to imagine a rich man so wanting in that social instinct which we call patriotism that, when once his extraordinary position in relation to his fellows is made clear to him, he will not consent freely to make such contribution.