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60

MR. A. W. FLUX, M.A., ON CITY GOVERNMENT AND

excesses, and the loss of one-third of the tax on military incomes, in accordance with law, altogether reduced the yield of the tax by £24,880 in 1898. The total number of taxpayers in that year was 57,361. With this number may be compared the return of number of households of 1895, which recorded 82,212 households. Of course some households will include more than one taxpayer, but the proportion of income-tax assessments to households is large. The number of payers has increased rapidly in the last few years.

Iu 1878 it was 27,835 with £3,221,000 of taxed income. In 1888 it was 40,520 with £4,672,000 of taxed income. In 1894 it was 46,179 with £5,242,000 of taxed income. In 1895 it was 48,093 with £5,430,000 of taxed income. In 1896 it was 50,233 with £5,701,000 of taxed income. In 1897 it was 54,166 with £6,057,000 of taxed income. And Tn J898 it was 57,361 with £6,244,000 of taxed income.

The proportion of taxpayers to households was therefore 58 J per cent. The average taxed income feli from £115 in 1888 to £109 in 1898, an indication of the change which has been some time in progress, by which, while the larger incomes do not become fewer, they become fewer in proportion to the smaller. The rise of incomes from below to above the tax-limit is going on rapidly. Hr. Marcus Rubin’s investigation in 1892 showed that the average income of artisans was 1,000 kroner (£55 10s.), while that of unskilled workmen was 780 kroner (£43), or only 2£ per cent below the tax-limit, I The average city revenue from income-tax was £155,000 over the years 1894-98, or 37 per cent of the total tax-revenue. The total taX-revenue of Copenhagen shows great elasticity. In 1883 it for the first time passed £300,000, in 1888 it passed £350,000, and passed £400,000 in 1895. Such a growth is very necessary, for elasticity in existing sources of income is the only present means of providing for the growing expenditure of the city. There are as good as no taxes the rates of which can be modified in the upward direction to meet increased outlay. The income-tax was meant to be variable, but twenty years at