actment of an income-tax law.

The law instituting the income tax was approved October 31[?], together
with the law revising the tariff, both measures being included in one
comprehensive statute entitled "An Act to reduce tariff duties and to
provide revenue for Government, and for other purposes." It is the
object of the present article to give a general description of the
income tax. This seems to be especially well worth while because the
tax can not be readily understood from a mere perusal of the involved
and sometimes obscure phraseology of the law itself. For the same
reason, however, the task of interpretation is not easy or entirely
safe. The law has certain novel features; and some of the questions of
detail to which they give rise can not be answered until we have the
official construction placed upon the language of the act by the
executive branch of the government and possibly by the courts. At the
same time, the main features of the tax become fairly evident to any
one who makes a careful study of the provisions of the act, even though
its application to specific cases may remain doubtful.

The law provides that incomes shall be subject to a tax of one per
cent. on the amount by which they exceed the prescribed minimum limit
of exemption. This is designated as the "normal income tax." There is,
then, an "additional tax" of one per cent, on the amount by which any
income exceeds $20,000. The rate is increased to two per cent. on the
amount above $50,000, to three per cent. above $75,000, to four per
cent. above $100,000, to five per cent. above $250,000, and to six per
cent. above $500,000. Therefore, under the normal and additional tax
combined, the first $20,000 of income, exclusive of the minimum
exemption, will be taxed one per cent.; the next $30,000, two per
cent.; the next $25,000, three per cent.; the next $25,000, four per
cent.; the next $150,000, five per cent.; the next $250,000, six per
cent.; and all income above that point seven per cent. This is a
rigorous application of the progressive principle.

The minimum exemption, at the same time, is comparatively high,--$4,000
for a married person and $3,000 for everybody else. The higher
exemption in case of the married is conditional upon husband and wife
living together, and applies only to their aggregate income; that is to
say, it can not be deducted from the income of each. It may be noted,
in this connection, that in England the exemption a