My remarks, of course, must not be taken to condemn taxes upon alcohol or taxes upon inheritances. And beyond lies the question of the acquisition of monopolies by the State, and the consequent reduction of taxation by reason of the State carrying on revenue-producing undertakings.
CHAPTER XXII
THE DEATH DUTIES
IN "Riches and Poverty," edition 1905, it was urged that the then existing Estate Duties, ranging from 1 per cent. to 8 per cent., might be sensibly increased. The revisions which have been made since 1905 are clearly shown in the comparative table given on the next page, which reviews in part the Estate Duties of the Budgets of 1894, 1907 and 1909.
The rates of Death Duty have been thus raised to about the level suggested in "Riches and Poverty," edition 1905.
The scale does not represent the whole of the Death Duties. Not only is the corpus of the property taxed under the scale, but the remainder, after such taxation, is taxed again under separate scales of Legacy and Succession Duties. I do not enter into the details here, but, generally, such complications are to be deprecated. Let the State take its equitable toll, but let it do so on a single progressive scale, and not tax, and tax again, first taking a percentage from the estate, and next taking a further percentage from the bit of the estate taken by a brother or cousin or aunt of the deceased.
As will have been gathered from Chapter 4 the increase of the duties on estates over £10,000 was more than justified. The great bulk of the national wealth is held in estates of over £10,000 each. The following facts (see Chapter 4) relating to the estates which pass in an average year should never be lost sight of:
THE HARCOURT (1894), ASQUITH (1907), AND LLOYD GEORGE (1909) DEATH DUTIES
| Value of Estate. | Harcourt, 1894 | Asquith, 1907 | ||
| Exceeds £ | But not over £ | Per cent. | Per cent. | |
| 100 | 500 | 1 | 1 | |
| 500 | 1,000 | 2 | 2 | |
| 1,000 | 10,000 | 3 | 3 | |
| 10,000 | 25,000 | 4 | 4 | |
| 25,000 | 50,000 | 4½ | 4½ | |
| 50,000 | 75,000 | 5 | 5 | |
| 75,000 | 100,000 | 5½ | 5½ | |
| 100,000 | 150,000 | 6 | 6 | |
| 150,000 | 250,000 | 6½ | 7 | |
| 250,000 | 500,000 | 7 | 8 | |
| 500,000 | 750,000 | 7½ | 9 | |
| 750,000 | 1,000,000 | 7½ | 10 | |
| On First Million. | On Remainder. | |||
| 1,000,000 | 1,500,000 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
| 1,500,000 | 2,000,000 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 2,000,000 | 2,500,000 | 8 | 10 | 13 |
| 2,500,000 | 3,000,000 | 8 | 10 | 14 |
| 3,000,000 | 8 | 10 | 15 | |