The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Volume 35) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TAXES ON PROPERTY AND PROPERTY INCREMENTS IN ITALY SUMMARY I. Introductory; the plan of September, 1919. ? II. The tax on increments of property, 112. ? Scale of rates, 114. ? III. The tax on property, as proposed in November, 1919, 119. ? IV. The tax on property in its present form; general characteristics, 120. ? Scale of rates, 122. ? In essentials, an extraordinary levy, 123. ? Exemptions, 126. ? Valuation; real property, 128. ? Business, 129. ? Securities, 129.? Allowance for debts, 131. ? Presumptive valuations, 135. ? Penalties, 137. ? Conclusion, 138. I. Introductory For an understanding of Italy's tax program it is necessary to know something of the preliminary stages of the measures finally enacted. By a decree of the Ministry of Finance (July 29, 1919, No. 7532) a commissionl was appointed to present to the government a plan for an extraordinary tax on property. The only limitations laid down by the government were that the smaller properties were to be exempt and the tax was to weigh more heavily on properties formed and increased in consequence of the war. In August the commission held some ten sessions and reached certain conclusions which a sub-committee was instructed to formulate into a projected law. Toward the end of September the subcommittee presented its plan, which contained two important features: one, an obligatory or forced loan; the other, a tax on the increases of property during the war. 1 Of this commission the writer of the present article wae a member. ? Editart. According to the provisions of the proposed forced loan all taxpayers possessing property in excess of 20,- 000 lire were to make loans to the state. These loans increased progressively as the amount of the property increased. Five per cent of the amount possessed was all...