The arguments above set forth apply likewise, though naturally not
quite in the same degree, to the proposal of levying an income tax
rising to an excessively high level, as, for instance, the suggested
tax of fifty per cent. on incomes over $500,000.
There, again, the test should be whether so radical a tax is wise and
required by the necessities of the country.
The nations in Europe have been fighting for nearly three years and
have been under an infinitely greater financial strain than our country
is or will be, yet none of these nations have resorted to extreme
taxation of income.
_Even in Great Britain_, whose financial burden is the heaviest of all,
whose debt is many times the total of ours and who has loaned about
$5,000,000,000 to her Allies, the highest income tax rate, the maximum
percentage in the graduated scale of taxation, is to-day no more than
approximately forty per cent.
In the last budget, introduced a couple of weeks ago, the British
Chancellor of the Exchequer declined, so I am informed, to consider an
increase in the income tax rate, because of the damaging effect which
such increase would be apt to have on the country's business and
prosperity.
In France and Germany the burden laid on incomes is much lower than
in England. _In Canada_ where war loans have been raised equivalent
on the basis of comparative population to what would be more than
$10,000,000,000 for America, _no Federal Income Tax exists at all_.
I doubt whether this latter fact is generally known in this country and
whether its significance is receiving the measure of serious
consideration which it deserves.
I understand that it is the deliberate policy of the Dominion
Government to endeavor to avoid resort to an income tax in order to
attract capital to Canada.
There can be little question that if our income taxation is fixed at
unduly and unnecessarily high rates, whilst Canada has no or only a
very moderate income tax, men of enterprise will seek that country and
there will be a large outflow to it of capital in course of time--a
development which cannot be without effect upon our own prosperity,
resources and economic power.
The financial dislocation, the discouragement and the apprehension
caused by unduly heavy taxation of incomes will not only act as a drag
on enterprise and constructive activity, but will make it exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, for corporations to sell securities in
sufficient volume and thus to obtain adequate funds to conduct their
business--especially also as investors will be fearful that high rates
of taxation once established will not easily be reduced to normal
levels, even when the present emergency is passed.
Extravagance, log-rolling, the unwise and inefficient expenditure of
money by governmental bodies are amongst the besetting sins of
democracy. The formula once found, the machinery once employed for the
raising of huge revenues, are apt to make the way of wasteful
governmental spending all too temptingly easy.
It must not be forgotten that taxation must necessarily by that much
diminish the surplus income fund of the individual and that both
theoretically and actually the spending of money by the government
cannot and does not have the same effect upon the country's prosperity
and enterprise as productive use of his surplus funds by the
individual.
The sentimental, and thereby the actual, effect of extreme taxation
will not be confined to the relatively small number of people in
possession of very large incomes. The disturbance and fear caused by
the contemplation of an excessively high ratio of taxation, even when
applied to a relatively few, is bound to spread to those also of more
moderate incomes.
Capital is proverbially timid. It will not take risks, except in the
expectation of commensurate reward, and if it sees the danger of its
reward being unduly infringed upon by excessively rigorous income
taxation, it will anticipate that menace by withdrawing from the field
of constructive investment to the greatest extent possible.
So much is this the case that I incline to the belief that _taxation so
graded as to result in a maximum average of say 33-1/3 per cent. would
produce at least as great a revenue as a maximum average of 50 per
cent_.
It is one of the oldest principles of taxation that an excessive impost
destroys its own productivity.
The flood of securities which would be coming for sale in order to
escape extreme income taxation would create a grave condition of
demoralization in the investment markets of the country, with the
resulting inevitable effect upon the country's general business, and
upon its capacity to absorb Government loans.