POOR MILLIONAIRES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13936, 23 June 1909, Page 7

POOR MILLIONAIRES.

AMERICAN INHERITANCE TAX

If the inheritance tax, which occupies :v section in the Payne Tariff Bill, liecomes iaw, says a London pait will press very hardly upon a number of America's plutocrats, for in thirty-six States of the Vnion there already, exists a State inheritance tax, and the addition of a Federal death duty would in some States make tho amount to be collected 2(1 per cent, of the inheritance in question." Most of the multi-millionaires reside or pay taxes in New York State, and here the inheritance tax is one per cent. The new Payne tax requires 3 per- ceut. on all fortunes over £IOO,OOO, so that in New York the heirs of the 'Oil King," Mr John Rockefeller, will have to pay something like £.5,000.000 to the State and Federal Government together. Mr Andrew Carnegie's fortune will have a levy made upon it of ovpr £3.000.000. Mr Pierpont Morgan's of about £1.200,000, while the heirs of Mrs Hettv Green and Mr Henry Flagler, of the Oil Trust, will have, to pay nearly £1,000,000. These sums are based on the supposition that the money goes to direct heirs, and not to nephews or nieces, as" ; s per cent, is demanded upon all : sums inherited from collateral rela- ! tions or strangers, and in this case the ! sum to be taxed starts at £IOO, while '• to- direct descendants up to £2OOO is ! exempt. From £2OOO to £20,000 1 I per cent, is assessed, from £20.000 to '< £IOO,OOO 2 per cent., and on all over |£100;000 3 per cent. _ ' The worst States for a multi-million-airie to die in, if the Payne Bill should pais, would be California, Idaho, North Carolina, and "Wisconsin, as these States have progressive inheritance taxes m> to a maximum of 13 per cent. Texas ' and Washington come rieSty with a maximum of 12 per cent., and so on down to New York, which with several others, is on the lowest se.ale- It will be seen, therefore, that if'the Pavne Bill adds 3 tier cent, more to. these "local death duties the inheritance tax in this country will, taken generally, he. greater than it is in England. .