CHAPTER XVII1

THE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION

[* may be pointed out that taxes are paid by persons,
not by things. When we speak of the taxation of
soods, we mean that a tax is placed on some person or
persons having dealings or relations with those goods, the
amount of the tax being connected with the amount of
the goods and the relation of the person to the goods.
Thus, when an annual tax is collected from (say) owners
of land or houses, the amount of the tax being proportioned
 to the capital value of, or to the annual revenue
derived from, the land or houses, we commonly call such a
tax by the name of a tax on the land or houses. This
property, however, serves as the measure of the amount of
tax which is levied on persons whose relation to the property
is that of ownership. So with other varieties of taxation of
commodities, The form of the tax must not hide the fact
that the real interest of taxation is a personal interest, and
the question which is of importance is whether each citizen
bears his just share of the common burdens, rather than in
what manner that share is secured from him, except in so far
as the irksomeness of the tax burden may vary with the
manner of its levy. Nevertheless, seeing that the total
amount collected from any tax-payer must necessarily depend
on the forms of taxation which are employed, it is very far
from being a matter of indifference what those forms may be.
There is one feature, connected with the selection of forms
of taxation, which is of very great importance in this connection.
 It is that the tax may be collected from one person
and its pressure be really made to rest on another. This
has already received some illustration in the discussion of
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