ABSTRACT
The taxes upon real estate come next in importance, and present tendencies point to the likelihood of these taxes retaining their present prominence. The taxes on the turnover of property and on unearned increment are subject to sudden and unforeseen influences which disqualify them from ranking with the land and building taxes in the communal budget. Throughout Germany—except in Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine, where the trade taxes and the system of entrance and excise dues have been highly developed—the income tax is still the backbone of local finance. Some of the rural communes of Rhineland and Westphalia have been allowed in course of time to saddle themselves with local income taxes two, three, and four times as high as the State tax. The other safe generalisation is that in German towns without an abnormally high rate of income tax persons in receipt of very small incomes are proportionately taxed more leniently than with us.
