Sardines, pressed, in oil, or in any other form, shall pay duty as second class, Bolivars. Cents. 0.10 1.93 ..per kilogram... .25 4.82 Surgical and dental instruments, those of anatomy and other sciences, patent medicines and chemical products, leather-lined buckles, and brushes for teeth, hair, clothes, and shoes, as fourth class.. ...per kilogram... Buttons of all kinds (except of silk, silver, and gold) and rice toilet powders, as fifth class...... ...per kilogram... LOUIS GOLDSCHMIDT, LA GUAIRA, June 10, 1903. Consul. TARIFF CHANGES IN NORWAY. Consul-General Henry Bordewich sends from Christiania, June 5, 1903, a list of recent changes in the Norwegian tariff, as follows: INCOME TAXATION IN FRANCE. No proposed fiscal legislation in many years has received the attention now being given in France to the measure laid before the Chamber by M. Rouvièr, Minister of Finance. The success of the bill is by no means determined, although a ministerial measure, but its text will be none the less interesting on that account to students of political economy. One of the critics of the bill says that, properly speaking, this bill is one providing a substitute for the present tax upon windows and doors and real property by one upon Complaint is made that the appraisement of taxation will be controlled by the employees of the financial administration. These officers establish the category of the taxpayer without declaration from the latter. Thereafter the taxpayers may protest. The rate of taxation being agreed upon, the State reserves the right to review the case, readjust the rate, and collect the shortages for as many as five years. This tax is favorable to the poor and inoffensive to the rich, but strikes with all its weight the great middle classes. Such, briefly, are the grounds of opposition to what is termed a leap into the dark. The exemptions favorable to fathers of large families are particularly interesting. The full text of the bill follows. MARSEILLES, June 25, 1903. ROBERT P. SKINNER, Consul-General. PROJECT OF LAW. ARTICLE 1. There shall be established, as a substitute for contributions under the head of taxation upon personal property and upon windows and doors, a general impost upon revenue. Concerning the general imposts upon the revenue. ART. 2. The general impost upon revenue is thus composed: (1) Of a personal tax, graduated according to the totality of the abilities of the taxpayer; (2) of a tax upon house rent. ART. 3. The general impost upon revenue is due on the 1st of January of each year for the entire year from every person residing upon French soil, and from every person who, although residing beyond French territory, possesses therein a furnished house at his disposition, or draws revenues from real property or from agricultural, commercial, or industrial enterprises situated in France. The impost is due under the same circumstances from societies and associations of whatever nature, accordingly as they may have their headquarters in France or beyond the borders of France. Are exempted from the impost upon revenue, save for the exceptions foreseen in article 13 herewith: 1. Persons whose taxable revenue as determined in conformity with the articles herewith does not exceed Five hundred francs ($96.50) in communes of 2,000 inhabitants and below. Seven hundred francs ($135.10) in communes of 2,001 to 5,000 inhabitants. Nine hundred francs ($173.70) in communes of 5,001 to 10,000 inhabitants. One thousand two hundred francs ($231.60) in communes of 10,001 to 30,000 inhabitants. One thousand six hundred francs ($308.80) in communes of 30,000 inhabitants and above. Two thousand francs ($386) in Paris. 2. Ambassadors and other foreign diplomatic agents, officials, consuls, and consular agents, but only in the measure with which the countries that they represent concede analogous advantages to French diplomatic and consular officers. 3. Foreigners who upon the 1st of January have resided in France less than one year, but only in that which concerns revenues produced beyond French territory. Of the personal tax. ART. 4. Personal taxation is established by categories, in conformity with the tariffs here following. It is uniformly calculated, and according to deductions specified in the said tariff, at the rate of 1.50 per 100 of the mean revenue of each category. ART. 5. The revenue according to which the personal tax is regulated is understood to be the ensemble of the annual revenues of every kind arising from furnished houses and buildings, from commerce and industry, from societies and trusts, from the liberal professions, from public and private situations, from pensions, and in general from all lucrative occupations, with deduction of interest upon loans charged to the taxpayers. The taxable revenue is represented: (a) For improved properties, by the revenue which serves as base for the land tax; (b) for unimproved properties, by the rental value of the buildings or the real price of the actual rentals paid, (c) for capital invested, by the total of the interest, dividends, and arrears. In that which concerns agricultural, industrial, and commercial exploitation charges and offices, the liberal professions, public and private situations, it is composed of the excedent of gross receipts realized upon the expenses inherent to the exercise of the profession. In regard to societies, companies, and enterprises of whatever character-industrial, commercial, and civil-are considered as expenses inherent to the exercise of the profession, the interests, dividends, and all other products or benefits which they distribute between their members or stockholders. The tax upon house rent. ART. 6. The tax upon house rent is based upon the real rental value of the building. It is due upon each furnished house occupied or at the disposition of the taxpayer, either in the commune of actual domicile or in any other commune, under whatever title it may possess. ART. 7. The rental value of residences serving as a base for the tax upon house rent is determined, as in the case of patents, either by the average of actual leases or of declarations of verbal arrangements, or by comparison with other buildings the rent of which has been regularly established or is notoriously known, and, in default of these bases, by appreciation. Not comprised in the appraisement of this rental valuation are properties exclusively utilized for commerce, industry, or the exercise of the liberal professions, and buildings required for rural exploitation; likewise buildings employed for the lodging of pupils in schools and "pensions," and the offices of public functionaries. ART. 8. Persons in furnished lodgings are not subjected to the tax upon rent, except at the rate of the rental value of their lodging, appraised as an unfurnished lodging. ART. 9. The rate of the tax upon rent is fixed at 4 per cent of the imposable rental value. ART. 10. In the county towns of the Departments, and in other communes which count more than 5,000 inhabitants, there is to be deducted from the rental value of residences of each taxpayer, for the application of the rate of the impost, a minimum of rent peculiar to each commune. This minimum represents two-thirds of the figure which in each commune constitutes the average house rent of taxpayers ranged, for the application of the personal tax, in the first two categories of the tariff. It is fixed exceptionally at 375 francs ($72.37) for the city of Paris. ART. II. When several persons live together in such manner as to constitute a single family, the deduction is operated but once; the rule is the same for clubs, societies, and associations of every nature. When a taxpayer possesses several furnished houses, the deduction is effected only in the commune of real domicile, or for the principal habitation, if these habitations are situated in the same commune. No deduction is accorded in that which concerns houses within the disposition of persons residing beyond French territory. ART. 12. In the communes other than the county towns of Departments, and of which the agglomerated population does not exceed 5,000 inhabitants, the rate of the tax upon rents is applied but for two-fifths to the taxpayers ranged for the application of the personal tax in the first two categories, but for three-fifths to the taxpayers ranged in the third and fourth categories, and for but four-fifths to taxpayers ranged in the fifth and sixth categories. The benefit of the preceding disposition is not applicable to houses owned in France by persons residing abroad. ART. 13. The tax upon rent is not due from persons who are liberated from the personal tax. The exceptions in this respect are in favor of those only who, although not residing upon French territory, and enjoying only revenues produced beyond French territory, have here, nevertheless, a furnished residence at their disposition. The assessment of the impost. ART. 14. The general impost upon revenue is established: (1) In that which concerns the personal tax, in the communes where the taxpayer has his habitual residence, or, if he does not reside in France, in the commune whence he finds the principal source of his revenues; (2) in that which concerns the tax upon rents, in the commune where is situated each of the buildings giving cause for the application of the tax. ART. 15. The head of a family is subject to the personal tax, both by reason of his personal revenues and by those of his wife and other members of the family living with him. In regard to clubs, societies, and associations of every nature, the personal tax is established in block in the name of those establishments, represented by their presidents, administrators, directors, chiefs, or superiors, according to the totality of their revenues. The same rules are applicable to the tax upon rent. Wives whose property is separated, but who do not live with their husbands, are subject to the personal tax and to the tax upon rent. Children or other members of the family who profit by their own labor or possess personally a revenue which is not at the disposition of the head of the family are likewise distinctly subject to the personal tax, but the buildings that they occupy with the head of the family are in every case taxable in block in the name of the latter. ART. 16. The taxpayers having at their charge either legitimate children or legitimized children, aged less than 16 years, are, for the application of the personal tax, classed in a category inferior by one, two, or three degrees to that to which they belong by the totality of their revenues, according as the number of these children is two or three, four or five, or more than five. The benefit of this declassification is, however, accorded integrally only to taxpayers ranged in the first ten categories; it is limited to one or two degrees for the taxpayers belonging to the ten categories, according as the number of children is three, four, five, or more than five; it is but one degree for other taxpayers, and only when they have more than five children. In that which concerns the tax upon house rent, the sum to deduct under the head of minimum rent in communes of more than 5,000 agglomerated inhabitants, and in the county towns of the Departments, is increased one-fifth for each child above one. In the other communes the rate of taxation to apply is that of the category in which the taxpayers are ranged by the effect of the preceding paragraph. Article 31 of the law of the 8th of August, 1890, is abrogated. ART. 17. In order to enjoy these advantages taxpayers are required to deposit at the mayor's office of the commune where they have their habitual and principal residences a declaration stating the names and ages of their children. ART. 18. The controller of direct taxation, assisted by the mayor and the assessors, will prepare for each commune, with the aid of the collector, a list of persons who should be subjected to the tax upon revenue. With the aid of the information supplied by the rolls of direct taxpayers, of those who receive taxes in the commune or furnished by the various public services, will be determined the category in which each taxpayer should be ranged for the application of the personal tax. Similarly, the total of the rent value of residences which should serve as a basis for the tax upon house rent will be fixed, and the number of children will be established, of which account should be taken, in order to make the deduction of family charges. In the communes where a deduction is made for the assessment of the tax upon |