Part 52 (2/2)

With regard to personal property in the same towns.h.i.+p, the wealthiest private taxpayer in the towns.h.i.+p lists household goods and utensils, work-stock, vehicles, money, jewelry ... at $216.

The next wealthiest private taxpayer covers all these properties with $105. He's a farmer and well-to-do, but his household furniture, farm animals, vehicles, implements, and the like, are worth only $105--on the tax list.

”Another large landowner covers his household goods, farm animals, vehicles, and the like, with $82; another with $457, and another with $2272. The differences lie not so much in the properties as in the consciences of these big landlords.”[Footnote: 1 E. C.

Branson, A Towns.h.i.+p Tax-List Study; in North Carolina Club Year Book, 1917-1918, pp. 66, 67 (The University of North Carolina Extension Series No. 30).]

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HONESTY

Such inequalities as these may be found in almost every tax list in any community. One of the strange things about it is that citizens evade taxation who would not think of being dishonest or unfair in a private business transaction. The reason is not easy to understand. Doubtless it is partly due to the feeling that as long as ”everybody does it” it is justifiable. Of course this is not true. One taxpayer is reported as saying, ”I feel dog-mean whenever I give in my taxes; but I'm doing as well as the rest and a little better than most.”

GOOD SENSE AND GOOD BUSINESS

Dishonest returns by one taxpayer defraud the citizen who is honest, because they place a heavier burden of taxation upon the latter. Moreover, the dishonest taxpayer and good cheats himself along with others, for the lower the business valuation of property, the higher the rate of taxation, or the poorer the service received from the government. ”It is good sense and good business for a state to show up with large tax values and low tax rates. It shows a brisk and lively prosperity that is attractive to outside capital and enterprise.” [Footnote: E. C. Branson, A Towns.h.i.+p Tax-List Study]

INTELLIGENCE AND PUBLICITY NEEDED

To secure fairer taxation and better returns from taxation there is need of improvement in the organization for tax a.s.sessment and tax equalization. It is especially important to make it more difficult for the ”tax dodger” to evade his responsibility. It would seem, however, that there would be fewer ”tax dodgers” if the people once got ”the right idea” of what taxation really means in a democracy. Great improvement would doubtless result, even under present conditions, if honest citizens would take more interest in the results of a.s.sessments as shown in the tax lists.

The writer quoted in the paragraphs above a.s.serts that, next to the Bible, ”the most important book in any county is the Tax List, and it is the one book that the people in general know least about.”

Everybody knows in a vague, general way that something is wrong with our tax system ... but what everybody does not know is what the facts are in concrete, accurate detail. There is no cure like publicity for wrongs in a democracy. Give the folks the facts, whatever they are, and the folks will do the rest. ... But at present n.o.body knows the facts. That is to say, n.o.body but the tax listers, the registers, and the sheriffs. And they are dumb because their official lives depend on silence. [Footnote:. C.

Branson, A Towns.h.i.+p Tax-List Study.]

Investigate and report on the following:

Do people of your acquaintance like to pay taxes? What reasons do they give?

The cost of your town government, your county government, and your state government per year.

The purposes for which most money is spent by your town government, your county government, and your state government.

The a.s.sessed valuation of property in your town, county, state.

Does the law in your state require that property shall be a.s.sessed at its full market value? If not, at what part of its market value?

The tax rate in your county. Is it high or low? Reasons why it is high or low.

The tax list of your town.

The sources of revenue in your county and state, and the amount raised from each source.

The work of a tax a.s.sessor in your town.

Where taxes are paid in your community.

Who has charge of tax collections in your community?

What happens to a citizen in your community who fails to pay his taxes?

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