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The Sociology of Taxation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Fritz Karl Mann
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Extract

Modern financial history records two fundamental changes in the concept of taxation. While, from the 16th to the 18th century, tax collection was considered as an expedient in times of emergency and even an abuse which as soon as possible should be replaced by income derived from public property, particularly domains, and by voluntary contributions, common opinion has gradually acquiesced in its permanent character. Current taxation is the inseparable twin of the modern State. This is as true for socialist as for capitalist countries. It is significant that even Soviet Russia, in spite of her vigorous collectivization, had to admit that the government could be more easily financed by current compulsory contributions than by the yield of public enterprises. After a brief diversion into the Utopian tax-free stage during the years 1920 and 1921, she regretfully returned, under the auspices of the New Economic Policy (NEP), to a broad scheme of direct and indirect taxation. Moreover, the recent suggestion of a follower of Mr. Keynes that taxation be stripped of its traditional function since the raising of revenue “can be brought about so much more easily by printing the money.” seems not to have made any deep impression on public opinion. Except for times of emergency and wars, governments are condemned for borrowing a large proportion of their needs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1943 , pp. 225 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1943

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References

1 Lerner, A. P., “Functional Finance and the Federal Debt,” Social Research, No. 1 (02 1943), p. 40Google Scholar.

2 Cardelli, Luigi, Vademecum dei Coniribuenti alle Imposle Direite, 15th ed., Roma 1940, pp. 314–324Google Scholar.

3 Lotz, Walter, Finanzwissenschaft Tubingen 1931, p. 274Google Scholar.

4 Compare also Hume's, David refutation in Political Discourses, 2nd ed., Edinburgh 1752, pp. 115 ff (“Of Taxes”)Google Scholar.

5 Haensel, Paul, “Public Finance of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” in: The Tax Magazine, 10 1938, p. 629Google Scholar.

6 Similarly, Buehler, Alfred G., Public Finance, 2nd ed.New York and London 1940, p. 671Google Scholar.

7 Shultz, William J., American Public Finance, 3rd ed.New York 1942 pp. 275–276Google Scholar; Buehler, Alfred G., op. cit. pp. 670–672Google Scholar.

8 Facing the Tax Problem, New York Twentieth Century Fund, Inc., 1937, pp. 199–200Google Scholar.

9 By Minister of Finance Matthias Erzberger.

10 See, for instance, Hicks, J. R., Hicks, U. K. and Roslas, L., The Taxation of War Wealth, Oxford 1941, p. 180 ff.Google Scholar

11 See the instructive survey of Russian tax legislation by Haensel, Paul “Public Finance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,” in The Tax Magazine, 09 through 12 1938Google Scholar, and “Recent Changes in the Soviet Tax System,” in Taxes, The Tax Magazine, Nov. 1941.

12 Haensel, Paul, in Taxes, The Tax Magazine, 11 1941, pp. 678–679Google Scholar.

13 Idem., in The Tax Magazine, Oct. 1938, pp. 594, 629, 630.

14 Ibid., Dec. 1938, p. 759.

15 See “Report of the Committee of the National Tax Association on Federal Taxation on Corporations,” in: Proceedings of the National Tax Association, Columbia, S. C. 1940, p. 570Google Scholar.

16 Magill, Roswell, The Impact of Federal Taxes, New York 1943, p. 169Google Scholar.

17 See the British edition of the plan: The Social Significance of Death Duties, adapted from Dr. Shultz's translation from the Italian of Eugenio Rignano by Sir Josiah Stamp, London, (without date), p. 50. Compare my book: Steuerpolitische Ideale. Vergleichende Studien zur Geschichte der ökconomischen und politischen ldeen und ihres Wirkens in der offenilichen Meimrng 1600–1935, Jena 1937, pp. 320–322; also, the dissertation of my former assistant Antweiler, Dr. Bruno, Erbschaftssteuer und Soziale Reform. Kritische Beirachlungen anlässlich des Rignanoplanes, Würzburg 1933Google Scholar.

18 Report of the Committee on National Debt and Taxation, Cmd. 2800, London 1927, p. 316Google Scholar.