VALUE OF LAND AN UNTAXED VALUE 47 
classes, corresponding to, or intended to countervail, the land- 
tax. The whole of it, therefore, is not taxation but a rent- 
charge, and is as if the State had retained, not a portion of the 
rent, but a portion of the land. It is no more a burden on the 
landlord, than the share of one joint tenant is a burden on the 
other. The landlords are entitled to no compensation for it, 
nor have they any claim to its being allowed for, as part of their 
taxes. Its continuance on the existing footing is no infringe 
ment of the principle of equal taxation.”—Mill, “Principles 
of Political Economy,” Volume II., Book V., Chapter II., 
Section 6. 
“A more difficult and disputable point arises in connection 
With the incidence of a long continued land tax. Here it is 
said that the tax is really a deduction from property. As land 
is sought for its revenue, what lowers its revenue lowers its 
selling price, and therefore a land tax falls altogether on the 
Possessor at the time of its imposition. Subsequent acquirers 
take the land subject to the burden, and pay a lower price in 
consequence. This process of “amortisation,” as it has been 
called, makes the subsequent removal of the tax undesirable; 
the persons who have lost by its establishment are not the same 
as those who gain by its remission. A purchaser has got land 
cheaper, and gains a further advantage by escaping the tax; 
m fact he is allowed for it twice over, once at the time of purchase 
and again at that of remission. 
‘The element of truth in this theory, which has received much 
favour, appears to be the following: (i) as previously pointed 
° u t, when a land tax becomes definitely fixed so that it can be 
foreseen, or even capitalised and redeemed, there is no inaccuracy 
ln speaking of it as a charge on land, which lowers its selling 
price; it is just the same as a mortgage, and is so regarded by 
Purchasers.”—Bastable, "Public Finance” {1903), page 440 
If a certain tax is levied and it is expected that itwill continue 
to be levied indefinitely in the future, it will reduce the selling