TAXLESS PARADISE

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 1

TAXLESS PARADISE

FORTUNATE FRENCH VILLAGES It sounds like a fairy tale, and yet it is a fact confirmed by official documents, that 24 French communes in. the Jura Mountains, with a total population of about 10,000, pay no local taxes (writes Bernhard Ranker from Besancou, France, to the ‘ New York Times ’)■ Instead, each inhabitant receives a yearly dividend ranging from 100 to 200 francs. Further ? there are 18 other communes—with _ a population of 8,000 no dividends are paid, but where local taxes are non-existent. This taxless paradise is visited yearly by hundreds of tourists, both French and foreign. La Chaux des Grotenay, an attractive mountain resort, may be taken a« an example. During the present century nobody has paid any local taxe« in this Jura village. Instead, each inhabitant, including women and children, has collected a yearly dividend averaging 150 francs a year. Further, each family is furnished with free firewood; since the allowance is generous, half of it is usually sold and is also a dividend. If any citizen of the commune desires to build a house, he is given a free plot of ground, also free stone and free sand. Finally, the village doctor is subsidised by the. commune, and, according to contract,’ he has reduced his fees; where other doctors charge 20 to 25 francs for a visit, he charges 5 to 10, There are 23 other Jura villages or towns where the treasurer writes dividend cheques every year; among the names might be mentioned" GrandeReviere, Etival, Les Rousses, Bonlieu, St. Germainen-Montagae, and NozeroyIt should be explained that indirect taxes, also national taxes, both-imposed by the central Government m Paris, are paid in these villages just as anywhere else. Their distinction is that they have abolished .local taxes.