Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

RESOURCES FOR DEFRAYING WAR EXPENSES

75

taxed IO sen. The new law was carried into effect in July,
I905.
Patent medicines were formerly taxed at the uniform rate
of 2 yen a year for every prescription. In the second increase
of taxes, however, the rate was raised in proportion to the value
of each patent medicine manufactured, in view of the varying capacity to bear taxes; and from I to Ioo yen was charged
on the thirteen grades of annual production between less than
300 yen and more than Ioo,ooo yen. With regard to the shooting-license tax, the payers had formerly been divided into
three grades: those who paid Ioo yen or more as income tax,
500 yen or more as land tax, or I50 yen or more as business tax,
or members of their families; those who paid 3 yen or more as
income tax, 30 yen or more as land tax, or 20 yen or more as
business tax, or members of their families; and all others.
The first were taxed 20 yen a year, the second io yen and the
third 2 yen. In the first and second increases they were all
raised, the increases amounting to as much as or more than
the original taxes.
The succession tax was created in the second increase of
taxation by a special law, since it was intended as a permanent tax. Formerly the heir had only to pay a fee for the
registration of any real estate or ships that might have come
into his possession, but all inherited property was now taxed.
An inheritor of large property comes into opulence without
effort and by mere chance; consequently he is a fit subject
for taxation. Putting aside the consideration of social policy,
it was an excellent source of revenue when the need of war
funds was so great.
The succession tax was levied in the following way: The
value of the property inherited was taken as the standard of
taxation, and the rate differed according to the difference
between the succession to a house and the inheritance of
property, or according to the relationship between predecessor and successor; and it increased in proportion to the value
of the property inherited. In the case of succession to a house,
the rate was light, inasmuch as the successor succeeded to the