VALUE  OF  LAND  AN  UNTAXED  VALUE  47

classes,  corresponding  to,  or  intended  to  countervail,  the  landtax.
  The  whole  of  it,  therefore,  is  not  taxation  but  a  rentcharge,
  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  infringement ­
  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