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LOCAL TAXATION IN COPENHAGEN.

the actual impact of the tax. The well-known strength of custom is peculiarly illustrated here. It surprised one accus- tomed to English habits to find property owners taking on themselves such a burden. Of course the final burden cannot be said to rest on them, but one can imagine that a proposal to levy local rates on owners, for convenience, in all cases, and without a discount, would not meet a very ready welcome in this country. It is worthy of remark that property-owners in Copenhagen generally own both land and buildings. There again is a custom strongly contrasting with our own division of interests.* How general it is is shown by the faet that an association of house- owners goes by the name of “ The Land-owners’ Association,” for this or that section of the city, as the case may be. Last of all, and most important of all, is the Inoome Tax, which places upon persons as persons that share of publio burdens which they are required to bear, and in proportion to their ability, as measured by income, not as measured by owner- ship of this or that class of property. This division of the incidence of public burdens is a very noteworthy feature of the system followed all over Denmark in locai taxation. Elsewhere, a tax on persons assessed in proportion to their ability, ad statum et facultates in the old legal phrase, as estimated by an assessment committee, on more or less varied and complex systems, is followed; in Copenhagen the simple Income Tax is used. The well-known difficulties of a local Income Tax trouble that city comparatively little. Its situation is not that which may be said to be typical of great cities, so far as their relations to other parts of the country in which they are situated are concemed. The Income Tax replaces an older personal tax, and was instituted in 1861. It is limited not to exceed 3 per cent, and * Other interests in property in Copenhagen take the form of mortgages. In all, the mortgages on property in the city fail only some S to 5 per cent sliort of the itisurance value of the buildings which form part of that property. It follows that a division of interests is practically universal, though the form of that division differs from that to which wo are accustomed.