* ^^:^ s\ \ I , .f'.f- 3i •I: X f*^ 'Si9^ r.>?x-'/. %^ T^:^ .im^> %* J* ^^f? ; I f L I E> RAFLY OF THE UN IVLRSITY Of ILLINOIS / LOCAL >§> TAX%fION # ^ V <§> ,« ■>?' PB^SED BY \ ^ ^ ^ ^^ # # THE BOAK# Ok|(^EB|eERS OP '^^ ^^ ^^ •5^^ 3 v^ v^ <5:' BETT^j^Eg^E^ i^D COLLECTION OF .•^L^i^AN^ Ilg>ERIAL TAXES. #4 N^ s? v^ 4^ ^ # C ^ ^ ¥ '"^i\4^ ^ MSLNCHESTEE y(^ERA^ ANIX^^ALKER, PRINTERS, POLICE STREET, ^ '.^ V raise money by taxation, the complicated and diverse nature of the proceedings of those authorities, and the various and uncertain times for which the rates and taxes are assessed ; and that this system involves the expen- diture of a considerable sum of money annually in salaries and office expenses, a large proportion of which might be saved, if a more simple and efficient system was inaugurated. In order to illustrate the costly and laborious processes by which the tax-payer is relieved of the money which he pays in taxes, I may observe that the Chorlton Union consists of twelve townships, in each township the Overseers act separately and independently of each other, making poor rates at and for different periods of the year ; — three Committees of the Muni- cipal Corporation of Manchester act in three of the townships, and in these townships the Corporation makes and collects separate Township and Highway Kates ; — in all the townships the Water Works Company (also the Corporation) makes and collects a Water Eate upon occupiers, and in three townships another rate upon owners ; — there are also five Local Boards of Health within the Union, each Board levying and collecting general District Piates ; — in one township a Sewer Authority acts ; — in three of the townships Surveyors of the Highways act, and levy Highway Kates ; — and lastly, the Commissioners of Taxes levy and collect House Duty, Land Tax, Property Tax, and Income Tax; in all, twenty- six separate and distinct authorities levying and collecting rates and taxes within the union. This system exists to a greater or less extent throughout Great Britain, and it has been reported upon by a Com- mittee of the House of Commons, which recommended that the Overseers of each township should be the only authority empowered to tax the inhabitants and collect the money. This recommendation, if carried out, would be a great im- provement, and materially lessen the labour and expense of assessing and collecting rates and taxes ; but it does not go far ± eno ugh, and would not accomplish all that is desirable in order to leform the anomalies and inconsistencies now complained of. For instance, in small parishes or townships, it is customary for the inhabitants to undertake the duties of Overseer in turn, and to perform them without the assistance of a paid officer, and as such appointments continue for a year only, and are I UIUC ' \ / 5 held by persons without regard to abihty, it is very doubtful whether the duties would be satisfactorily performed if the recommendations of the Committee were carried out. In many other parishes or townships, Assistant Overseers, who are paid officers, are often very inefficient and illiterate, and their duties are imperfectly performed, whilst those assistant overseers or collectors who are of a better order, are, through the inadequate remuneration received consequent upon the limited area of parishes or townships, compelled to follow some other business in order to secure the necessary means of living, which frequently results in the misuse of the money collected ; and to such cases, through imperfect supervision, may be traced most of the embezzlements by rate or tax collectors. These and other reasons have led the Board of Overseers of this Township to believe it to be desirable to form a more substantial and efficient authority for the control of this part of the public business ; and they therefore recommend that all collectors of Eates and Taxes be brought under the control of one Local Authority in every Poor Law Union. As the major part of the duties of such authority would be connected with Finance the authority might be called "The Financial Board," adding the name of the Union or District to which it belongs ; such Board should undertake and perform all the duties now performed by Overseers of the Poor, Assessirient Committee, and Commissioners of Taxes; and immediately after its appointment all appointments of Overseers, Assessment Committee, and Commissioners of Taxes would of course cease, and no further appointments to these offices would be made. It is proposed that such Board shall consist of 12 members, to be appointed as follows, viz : — m 3 members to be appointed by the Government, 'f^ 3 members to be appointed by the Assessment Committee, 6 members to be appointed by the Overseers of the several townships mthin the Union collectively. The 9 members appointed by the Local Authority to retire from offic^ as follows : viz., 3 the first year, 3 the second year, and 'o the " 6 third year. The vacancies created to be supplied by members elected for three years by the votes of the taxpayers, similar to the principle adopted in the Election of Town Comicillors, and also to that recently brought into force by the School Board Elections. By forming the first Board in the way suggested, the ap- pointment of members conversant with all the duties will be secured. This is an important point, and will be a sufficient guarantee that all interests wdll be taken care of, and all duties properly performed, so that as little inconvenience as possible will result in the transition from the old to the new state of things. It is also important to observe that the proposed scheme does not create new districts, does not create an additional local authority and does not create new offices. The present Poor Law Union Districts are the most convenient for the purpose ; — not too large for efficient control, but just large enough to ensure the efficiency and economy of management which it is desirable to secure ; the existing authorities now acting would become one authority, and the officers now employed by those authorities would be employed by the New Board, excepting those whose services it would not be desirable to retain; these might be superannuated or compensated according to length of service, age, &c. E^ery Board would appoint a Chief Officer or Comptroller of Taxes, whose duties would consist in the supervision of the Collectors, and in acting as Clerk to the Board. The qualification of a member of the Financial Board might be fixed by the Poor Law Board according to the circum- stances of each district ; the qualification to take effect on the first election by the ratepayers. Sf^cimens of Proposed Consolidated Tax Assessment and '^e Note are appended hereto, by which you will see instead of the present system, which requires that the of the taxpayer and all the accompanying particulars be written from six to twelve times, in as many books, and otes and notices as many times more, — one assessment Chari that nam^ shall the n 1 7 in one book, and one note of the charge are all that will be required to shew at a glance the total amount due from each taxpayer for the year. The Charge Note would be delivered to the taxpayer at the commencement of the year, — one collector only would apply for payment, — and one office only would be required for the purposes of appeals, payments, &c. Some objections may be urged against the extinction of the office of Overseer or other separate authority, but these cannot be of any weight, inasmuch as formerly a parish or township separately maintained its own poor ; the Poor Law Amendment Act formed parishes into Unions, in order to promote efficiency and economy in management ; a subse- quent Act made all expenses connected with the relief of the poor a common charge ; and now each parish or township in a Union contributes an equal pound rate to a common fund for such relief ; and as the parish or township boundary is no longer maintained in the relief of the poor, there does not appear to be any reason why the separate machinery in each parish or township should be maintained for the purpose of raising the money required for such relief, nor for raisyig the other rates and taxes contributed by the inhabitants ; and as every parish or township would be represented at the ^^oard which it is proposed to form, no practical injustice could arise from the extinction. It is possible also that any scheme for the reconstruction of our system of assessing and collecting Eates and Taxes which comprises a proposal to alter the constitution of the Assessment Committee, an authority so recently created and from whose operations, it must be admitted, some good has resulted may be looked upon, at first, with disfavour. The proposed scheme must not, however, be takej^ /as extinguishing that authority, b^t rather as absoi'bing-ii^n a more comprehensive authority, having greater stability ,ij aud more important functions. The scheme is, in fact, an extension of the principle ad({)pted in the creation of Assessment Committees, viz. : the appoint- ment of one authority in a given district, which shall have 8 the control of Assessments, Rates, and Taxes, in the place of a number of authorities. It may be asked why the Board of Guardians, an authority already appointed, should not be the Financial Board ? It may also be asked, with even greater force, why should not Boards of Guardians be the School Boards ? The answer is the same as it would be if it was proposed to make Boards of Guardians the Local authority upon aU mattelrs, viz.: that the duties differ very materially from those for which Boards of Guardians were originally appointed, and generally the performance of the duties of a Financial Board would entail the consumption of more time than Boards of Guardians could well afford to give. The duties of Boards of Guardians, comprising the relief of the poor in and out of workhouses, pauper schools, medical arrangements and accounts, are of sufficient importance to claim the attention of a distinct body. Financial Boards would command the attention of gentlemen of high administrative ability. The taxation of the inhabi- tants for every purpose, the collection of the money, the regulation of assessments, the preparation of the Lists of Voter^ and Jurymen, attendance at Petty or Special Sessions, Revision Courts, &c., are duties of great importance, which ought to be vested in such a body having greater stability than IBoards of Guardians, which are elected for a year only. The Government could be represented on the Financial Board which could not be the case if the business was transferred to Boari of Guardians. Ambngst the numerous reasons which may be given in favour of the establishment of Union Financial Boards are : l.iThat a consolidated aiijbhority would promote greatej^ efficie; iicy amongst its officer^han can be now attained, and a great jsaving would thereby be effected, because seiwices could be uti lised which cannot be the case where small and divided autho];ities are acting independently of each other. 2. A Board of Guardians disburses money for the whole 9 Union. This system has promoted economy, uniformity, and efficiency, and if it has been found advantageous in the dis- bursement of the money, it must also be worth adopting in the arrangements required for raising it. 3. That it would enable the Chief Officer of the Board to act as Kegistrar of Voters in his district. There cannot be any doubt that reform is needed in the registration of voters and in the preparation of the various Lists. Why it should be necessary to print and publish a County Voters' List, a Parliamentary Borough Voters' List, a Municipal Borough Voters' List, a Jury List, and that there should be two or three other "Lists" of Voters for Vestries, School Boards, &c., as is now the case, to the manifest confusion of voters and embarassment of every one, is not at all obvious. One List, published at the commencement of the year, with a separate column for each qualification to vote, to be called " The Voters' List," would save immense labour and expense ; and the Eegistrar of Voters should hear and decide claims and objections at the Tax Office. This arrangement would secure the registration of every voter, and give great satisfaction. 4. That it would lessen very materially the labours of the Poor Law Board and Poor Law Auditors. The correspondence which is now conducted with 14,886 separate townships would be confined to 700 Financial Boards ; and as it is probable that greater efficiency would be attained, the diminution of labour would be considerable. 5. Accounts would be better kept, returns more easily and accurately obtained, and the assistance which such Boards would be able to render to the Government in the collection of statistics, cannot be too highly appreciated. The necessity for some organized system for this purpose is most forcibly illustrated in the new return of the local t^xes of England and Wales, just issued ''in rectification of Mr. Hunt's large 'blue book' upon this matter." In the Blue Book referred to, No. 497, 31st July, 1868, the taxation of a large city containing six towoiships is erroneously stated in every township. 10 " The errors in Mr. Hunt's return are stated to have arisen "from certain irregularities of information gathered from " Improvement Commissioners, Local Boards of Health, and " Municipal Corporations." 6. Rates and taxes would be more efficiently collected ; a considerable saving would be effected in this respect, and Government could rely upon the payment of money into the exchequer at the commencement of the year, which is not now collected within the year, and frequently not until consi- derably more than a year after it is due. That there is room for considerable improvement in the collection of Government Taxes may be gathered from the following facts : — In an adjoining township the collector received, on the 22nd of December only, the Eeceipt Check Books which enable him to receive and give receipts for Taxes, commencing on the 5th of April preceding. In this township, at the time of writing, not one person has paid government taxes (House Duty, Property Tax, &c.) for the year 1870. The collector's duplicates have not yet been delivered to him by the Commissioners, and the Charge Notes have not been delivered, although more than nine months of the financial year have expired. During these nine months, in this town- ship alone, 2,000 persons, who are hable to pay these taxes, have removed. If these are average cases, the number of persons removed in the United Kingdom since these ta^es became due is upwards of 840,000. How much money has been lost to the exchequer in conse- quence of these removals ? If ihese taxes had been collected with the Poor Eate, 90 per cent would have been already received and paid into the imperial Gxchcquer. [ 7. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of every Financial iV. ■ Board in a County might form a County Financial Board, making a most complete system of Eepresentation, Taxation, • and Finance. 11 Any estimate of the saving to the country, which would be effected by the appointment of Union Financial Boards, must necessarily be based upon imperfect information ; but there is no doubt that all the present cost of collecting the government taxes enumerated in the accompanying schedule, and half the cost of collecting local rates, may be saved ; this is estimated at over a million a year. If the Government does not deem it expedient that a local authority should continue to collect these taxes, they might be relinquished as a source of imperial revenue by handing the House Duty over to the local authority for local purposes ; by a compulsory redemption of the Land Tax, extended over a term of years, . and the income therefrom applied to the extinction of the Income Tax. The Land Tax is now redeemable at the option of the payer; this leads to the belief that the legislature intended that the tax should be ultimately extinguished. By making its redemp- tion compulsory, its extinction would be accelerated and much valuable time would be saved. The redemption might be effected after the following manner: — a Land Tax of Ml per annum represents, at five per cent., a principal sum of £20 ; without interest, this sum at the rate of M per annum would be paid off in five years, and each year the exchequer would receive a sum equal, or nearly equal, to the Income Tax, and which might be appropriated to its extinction after deducting the annual revenue now derived from the Land Tax. The vacuum thus Created in the imperial revenue at the end of the fifth year would, in aU probability, be more than filled up by increased trade and consumption of taxable goods ; and in the meantime it would be possible to mature a scheme for the reconstruction of our taxation upon an equitable footing. It is not, however, the object of this paper to deal withthe imposition or extinction of taxes, but to place upon a sir aple, efficient, and inexpensive footing the assessment and colleption of such taxes as are included in the scheme proposed ; and it is the opinion of this Board that so long as rates and taxes continue to be raised upon the annual value of real property, 12 any reform which does not comprise the assessment and col- lection of the same by one local authority will be incomplete and misatisfactory. The Municipal Council of Manchester has determined to assimilate the collection of the Township and Highway Eates of the City with that of the Borough Eate, and is now seeking Parliamentary powers to collect those Eates by Precept directed to the Overseers. In conclusion, I may observe that the establishment of Union Financial Boards would be the supplying of a great national want ; — the substitution of an organized district authority and staff for the present disjointed, cumbrous, and disorganized authority ; — an efficient and economical system of tax collection for the present inefficient and costly one ; — simplicity and uniformity for what is now unintelligible and embarassing to the taxpayer ; — the creation of an important responsible body in substitution for various unimportant authorities having no position, and evading or neglecting to comply with the law until the expiration of their short term of office, when, in many cases, the duties are commenced and continued in the same unsatisfactory way by their successors. A system which forces itself upon the attention of every householder, which is a branch of the public service, and which the public have to maintain, ought to be as simple and efficient as it is possible to make it, and as inexpensive as is consistent with a due regard to the interests of the State. It is believed that the views advocated by the Board of Overseers of this Township are capable of being converted into such a system, and that their adoption would confer a benefit upon, and would be appreciated by, every taxpayer in the kingdom. I have the honor to remain, Right Honorable Sir, Your most obedient Servant, A. J. BENNETT, Chief Clei'k. 1 ret Pi CS & •saunf uo aAaas o? aV[«]l wqiaMAV •jooj aip JO swBipjBno jo uopoeia 1—1 9) tf .1 r; w 00 M O S h'P > S hi w o H 1 E< ■ 1 OD J5 ^1 o H H ^ »4 1 1^ •73 P4 a .^ PH £ 8. d. 1890 22 15 100 • 240 80 140 1475 2 10 200 6 10 )085 10 60 £ S. d. 1.595 19 83 5 200 60 15 no 1241 2 160 15 5 10 4330 8 5 50 103 13 1 360 1 NOTB.— Oolums 10, ] 1, and 16, are collected by the Overseers ; 12 and 13 by the Municipal Corporation of Manchester ; 14 and 15 by the Water Works Company (the Corporation) ; l-S 19, 80, and 21. by the Commissioner of Taxes. 15 FINANCIAL BOARD. Tax Assessment, 1871. 12 B to >^ p; 2, . pud (^ (1| 5 2 t- O _ p (B 5 Ehoq £ B. d. 46 10 5 11 1 2 8 6; r> 16 8 1 18 111 3 8 li 36 3 11 1 2 4 17 3i 3 2j 126 5 1» 4 9| 19 2 13 O M £ s. d. 53 3 4 12 8 2 15 6 13 4 2 4 6 3 17 10 1 4 5 11 2 3 8 144 .6 10 5 6 1 13 4 14 an -I .Srt'op £ s. d. 59 16 3 £ s. d. 19 18 9 14 3 3 2 5i 7 10 2 10 0} 4 7 6| 46 10 9 16 6 5 Oi 4 li 162 7 6 2i 1 17 15 ? OS . a ^