In Holland[67] there are both stamp duties
and duties upon registration; which in some
cases are, and in some are not, proportioned
to the value of the property transferred. All
testaments must be written upon stamped paper,
of which the price is proportioned to the
property disposed of; so that there are stamps
which cost from three pence or three stivers
a-sheet, to three hundred florins, equal to
about twenty-seven pounds ten shillings of
our money. If the stamp is of an inferior
price to what the testator ought to have made
use of, his succession is confiscated. This is
over and above all their other taxes on succession.
Except bills of exchange, and some
other mercantile bills, all other deeds, bonds,
and contracts, are subject to a stamp duty.
This duty, however, does not rise in proportion
to the value of the subject. All sales of
land and of houses, and all mortgages upon
either, must be registered, and, upon registration,
pay a duty to the state of two and a-half
per cent. upon the amount of the price
or of the mortgage. This duty is extended
to the sale of all ships and vessels of more
than two tons burden, whether decked or undecked.
These, it seems, are considered as a
sort of houses upon the water. The sale of
moveables, when it is ordered by a court of
justice, is subject to the like duty of two and
a-half per cent.
In France, there are both stamp duties and
duties upon registration. The former are
considered as a branch of the aids of excise,
and, in the provinces where those duties take
place, are levied by the excise officers. The
latter are considered as a branch of the domain
of the crown, and are levied by a different
set of officers.
Those modes of taxation by stamp duties
and by duties upon registration, are of very
modern invention. In the course of little
more than a century, however, stamp duties
have, in Europe, become almost universal,
and duties upon registration extremely common.
There is no art which one government
sooner learns of another, than that of draining
money from the pockets of the people.
Taxes upon the transference of property
from the dead to the living, fall finally, as
well as immediately, upon the persons to
whom the property is transferred. Taxes
upon the sale of land fall altogether upon the
seller. The seller is almost always under
the necessity of selling, and must, therefore,
take such a price as he can get. The buyer
is scarce ever under the necessity of buying,
and will, therefore, only give such a price as
he likes. He considers what the land will
cost him, in tax and price together. The
more he is obliged to pay in the way of tax,
the less he will be disposed to give in the way
of price. Such taxes, therefore, fall almost
always upon a necessitous person, and must,
therefore, be frequently very cruel and oppressive.
Taxes upon the sale of new-built
houses, where the building is sold without the
ground, fall generally upon the buyer, because
the builder must generally have his
profit; otherwise he must give up the trade.
If he advances the tax, therefore, the buyer
must generally repay it to him. Taxes upon
the sale of old houses, for the same reason as
those upon the sale of land, fall generally
upon the seller; whom, in most cases, either
conveniency or necessity obliges to sell. The
number of new-built houses that are annually
brought to market, is more or less regulated
by the demand. Unless the demand is
such as to afford the builder his profit, after
paying all expenses, he will build no more
houses. The number of old houses which
happen at any time to come to market, is regulated
by accidents, of which the greater
part have no relation to the demand. Two or
three great bankruptcies in a mercantile town,
will bring many houses to sale, which must
be sold for what can be got for them. Taxes
upon the sale of ground-rents fall altogether
upon the seller, for the same reason as those
upon the sale of lands. Stamp duties, and
duties upon the registration of bonds and
contracts for borrowed money, fall altogether
upon the borrower, and, in fact, are always
paid by him. Duties of the same kind upon
law proceedings fall upon the suitors. They
reduce to both the capital value of the subject
in dispute. The more it costs to acquire any
property, the less must be the neat value of it
when acquired.
All taxes upon the transference of property
of every kind, so far as they diminish the capital
value of that property, tend to diminish
the funds destined for the maintenance of
productive labour. They are all more or
less unthrifty taxes that increase the revenue
of the sovereign, which seldom maintains any
but unproductive labourers, at the expense of
the capital of the people, which maintains
none but productive.
Such taxes, even when they are proportioned
to the value of the property transferred,
are still unequal; the frequency of transference
not being always equal in property of
equal value. When they are not proportioned
to this value, which is the case with
the greater part of the stamp duties and duties
of registration, they are still more so.
They are in no respect arbitrary, but are, or
may be, in all cases, perfectly clear and certain.
Though they sometimes fall upon the
person who is not very able to pay, the time
of payment is, in most cases, sufficiently convenient
for him. When the payment becomes
due, he must, in most cases, have the
money to pay. They are levied at very little
expense, and in general subject the contributors