ABSTRACT
Taxation was arbitrary and unequal, and as a rule was regulated less by what was done for the citizens than by their ability to pay or, it might be, to evade payment. The German system of local taxation is complicated, but that is because it is a system, and because it is the result of an endeavour to apportion taxation with some approximation to equity. There are special provisions to prevent the double taxation of individuals, and to provide for the division of taxation between different communes where undertakings operate in two or more communes. The separate assessments to the local income tax are equal to about one-third of the entire population; though where the exemption limit is low the ratio is higher. Local income taxes based on the State income tax tariffs are levied in the other States, but in most States the exemption limit for the State tax is lower than in Prussia.
