According to the above proposals the income-tax would return _47,600,000l._ per annum. This sum seems far too moderate to most Socialist writers. Councillor Glyde, for instance, gives in a widely read pamphlet elaborate tables in which the produce of a graduated income-tax is carefully calculated. The Fabian Society would make "a moderate beginning" by taxing large incomes _2s. 6d._ in the pound. Councillor Glyde would begin by levying a _3s._ income-tax on them. Taxation of incomes in accordance with his proposals would bring in _70,281,839l._ per annum.[456]
Mr. Smart, of the Independent Labour Party, gives lengthy details of a taxation reform scheme in which figure a foundation-tax, a special property-tax, and a super-tax. Large incomes would have to pay 17-1/2 per cent., or _3s. 6d._ in the pound, and his property and income tax would bring in _78,000,000l._ per annum.[457]
Mr. Philip Snowden, M.P., submits a different scheme of taxation. There is to be an income-tax of _1s._ in the pound and a graduated super-tax up to _6s._ in the pound. Whilst the three authorities mentioned so far propose to take from the large incomes _2s. 6d._, _3s._, and _3s. 6d._ in the pound as a "moderate beginning," Mr. Snowden would, presumably also as a "moderate beginning," take _7s._ in the pound from them. He is quite touched with his own generosity and magnanimity, for might he not demand at once _17s._ or _20s._ in the pound? "To console the possessors of incomes in the higher grade, say _50,000l._ a year, to the payment of an income-tax of _1s._ in the pound, we may remind them that they still retain _33,500l._ a year, which is a very generous payment by labour to them for the privilege of seeing them exist in gorgeous splendour and sumptuous idleness."[458]
The proposals regarding the estate duty to be charged also vary. The Fabian Society proposes a maximum of 15 per cent. Mr. Smart would be satisfied with a graduated estate duty with a maximum of 25 per cent, instead of the present maximum of 8 per cent.[459] Mr. Snowden proposes a scale of duties which ranges from 1 per cent, up to 50 per cent.[460]
Besides the very greatly increased income-tax and estate duty, there would be, according to Mr. Snowden, a land value tax of a penny in the pound of its capital value, which is equal to 10 per cent. annual value. It is to be the small beginning of the policy of taxing landowners out of existence, to be speedily followed by confiscation. "The annual value of land being _250,000,000l._, the produce of the land value tax would be _25,000,000l._ a year."[461] The author justifies the creation of that tax as follows: "Liverpool, London, Glasgow owe their existence and their prosperity to their respective situations, which are natural advantages and which ought not in justice to be enjoyed solely by those who live upon the sites. Every town and village in the country contributes to the prosperity of every other part. The nation is a unit; its resources and its obligations should be mutually shared."