The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911 Page: 10
348 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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10 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
and clerks of railroad companies, and doctors to a tax of 1 per
cent. Those engaged in agriculture and mechanical pursuits and
those in general who enjoyed fixed incomes were not taxed on their
income as such. The income tax as thus levied was therefore a
partial one.
Receipts from Taxes
The financial reports of this period do not classify the receipts
from the several taxes, and for the general propery tax and the
poll tax one must rest content with the assessments to get an idea
of their importance in the tax system. The amount received from
license taxes in 1861 was $43,097. No similar statistics are avail-
able for 1862 and 1863. In 1864 the tax on sales of merchandise
brought in $54,315.76; the liquor receipts tax, $67,423.35; while
the license tax on distillers produced $43,883.28, and the
taxes on other callings only $13,392.62. More than 62 per cent
of the taxes, other than ad valorem, in 1864 were thus obtained
from the liquor business. The act of November, 1864, was very
productive, the revenue in 1865 on account of it being $308,582.39.
The license tax on distillers and other callings contributed $172,-
279, the merchandise and income tax, $136,303.
The laws imposing the gross receipts taxes especially were not
strictly drawn and this fault and the disorganization of conditions
generally resulted in evasion and in the imperfect assessment and
collection of all taxes.1 As to the tax on professions, which is the
tax nearest to income taxation in the financial history of Texas,
Governor Throckmorton later said that its yield was small and
that it operated oppressively and unequally. He recommended a
minimum exemption with a graduated but moderate rate on the
remainder.2
In estimating the burden of taxation account must be taken of
the taxes levied and collected by the Confederate States' govern-
ment. In the administration of the Confederate taxes there was
a chief collector for the state and assessors and collectors for the
districts into which the state was divided for purposes of tax-
1Message of Governor 1Murrah, October 20, 1864. Executive Record,
280.
Message, August 18, 1866. House Journal, 11th Legislature, Regular
Session, p. 79.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911, periodical, 1911; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101054/m1/18/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.