Assessment

Taxation Assessment in 1889

The following information about Taxation is from the Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States by the Best American and European Writers:

“The person to whom the assessment is made need not be the owner. He may be the agent, trustee, guardian, executor or administrator. This is because the property, which owes the tax by reason of being protected, has not hands wherewith to take from itself a portion of itself, to pay for protection to be accorded to the remainder. Therefore the law, following the property to get the tax, makes its demand upon whoever it finds in possession, without inquiring upon what interest the property is based. This it does, ignoring all persons beneficially interested in the title, even the owner himself. ‘Every person,’ says the statutes of New York, ‘shall be assessed, etc., for all personal property owned by him, including all property in his possession, or under his control, as agent, trustee, guardian, etc.’

Thus it will be seen, that, for the purpose of assessment, possession is a title superior to ownership. And I now reiterate, that, according to the theory of our government, a tax stands upon the just obligation of all property to contribute to the support of the power which protects it; but that the assessment stands upon the possession or power of the person assessed, over the property taxed.

Keeping (the) (…) vital distinction between an assessment and a tax clearly in view the mind will come by easy steps to an understanding of how it is that a tax, to a man who has no property in the state, is a tax upon his person. Process is the eye of the law. Its vision is limited by territorial boundaries. Whatever does not exist within that limit, does not, for any purpose of law, exist at all. The rich man, whose property is in Europe and the pauper, whose property is nowhere, are then equal, as persons, before the law. A tax upon a pauper would be a personal tax. A tax upon the rich man is, by unimpeachable parity of reason, the same. Such a tax would be a gross solecism on our system.

(…) A copy of an assessment roll of the time of Edward III. (1329-67) given by Lingard in his history of England, contains a list of articles, down to a towel and a bench; and the historian notes that in the returns are carefully mentioned the very rooms in which the articles were found, and that there were no exemptions except one suit of clothes for each person, which were supposed to be included in the tax levied on the poll or person.

Description of Assessment

Assessment

Assessment

Resources

See Also

  • Deficiency
  • Deficiency assessment
  • Jeopardy assessment

Resources

See Also

  • Assess
  • Equalization

Resources

See Also

  • Damages
  • Internal Revenue
  • Taxation
  • Internal Revenue
  • Taxation
  • Hierarchical Display of Assessment

    Education And Communications > Organisation of teaching > Schoolwork

    Assessment

    Concept of Assessment

    See the dictionary definition of Assessment.

    Characteristics of Assessment

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    Resources

    Translation of Assessment

    Thesaurus of Assessment

    Education And Communications > Organisation of teaching > Schoolwork > Assessment

    See also

    • Fraud against the European Union
    • Continuous assessment

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