Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1910 — The Inheritance Tax. [ARTICLE]

The Inheritance Tax.

An Inheritance tax is an assessment laid upon the male heirs of property, either by distribution or descent. Sometimes this assessment is confined to collateral heirs, when It Is called collateral inheritance tax. The raising of public fun<|s in this way has been sanctioned by legislation from the beginning of’Romanvlaw, and in England and in other countries is a large and steady source of revenue, although such taxes have been stigmatized by eertain economists as “death duties.” During _ihe„ClsK JWar._taxea_of—thia_ kind were made part of the internal revenue system of the United States, but abolished soon after the struggle ended. The rate and method of assessment vary In different countries and In different States of the Union. In the United States lineal collateral and succession inheritance taxes have been Instituted in several States as a source of domestic revenue. Inheritance laws have in the United States occasioned much discussion and litigation. but their justice and utility have been testified to by experience and the decision of the law courts. The leading economists of the present and other periods have seen the scientific propriety, even necessity, Of such legal and have noted the uniformity with which they deal with all classes of the financial community.