tors; canal companies, and others of a like public nature, whofe capital is divided or transferred in fhares, entitling each proprietor to a certain portion of the profits of the concern, and many other public bodies, are likewife exempt for all Income applicable to the payment of dividends or intereft on fuch stock or fhares. In all fuch inftances, the Income is properly confidered as the Income of the party entitled to the dividend or intereft arifing on the stock or fhare. By this means the Income becomes chargeable in its due proportions in the hands of the perfons receiving the dividends or intereft, and the party poffeffing this fpecies of property does not lofe any exemption or abatement to which he may be entitled, which would be the cafe if the public body paid the full one-tenth on the aggregate of their Income, previous to the divifion amongst the proprietors. Public corporations, particularly corporate cities and Sect. 89. towns, are alfo exempt in refpect of fuch portion of Income as fhall be appropriated by any act, ftatute, or bye-law, towards defraying the expence incidental to their civil govern ment. Public bodies as colleges are alfo exempt in refpect of Sect. 89. fuch Income as fhall be appropriated by any private ftatutes or charter, or endowment of fuch public body, to the maintenance, fubfiftence, or advancement of any mafter, fellows, ftudents, or members. Here again the perfons receiving this fubfiftence are chargeable as individuals on the principle before adverted to. 2d. [Of Income, in refpect of which Perfons and Public Bodies are chargeable.] INCOME, as defined and defcribed in the Act, may be comprehended under the following heads: ift, Income arifing from property (real or perfonal); whether it be the property of the perfon to be charged, as land, funds, &c. or of any other person, as interest for debts, annuities, allowances, &c. ad, Income ad, Income of a mixed fort, as arifing from property, and industry used in managing that property united as a fource of Income; as in the cafe of trades, or other vocations where a capital is employed. 3d, From perfonal induftry or merit only, as from offi ees, penfions, ftipends, &c.; where no capital is employed, The Income upon which the affeffment is to be made, is that which the party receives within a limited period from any of the various fources before mentioned. after making all the various deductions allowed by the Act. In general the grofs annual Income is fuppofed to confift of that which the party has acquired within the year. In fome cafes mentioned in the Act, the Income is defined and limited without regard to the receipt; as in the cafes of owners and occupiers of land: there the annual value of land, from the difficulty of afcertaining the precife gains, may in ordinary cafes be eftimated in a different proportion. In fome cafes the estimate may be taken at a general or particular average. By a general average is meant, that which in the Act is called a fair average: when the fums received from the fame property, or by the fame pursuits, in different years, are estimated upon the whole amount received, in fuch a number of years as are fuffered to take in all the inequalities of fuch receipt, and which being equally diftributed over that number of years, will give the fuppofed receipt of any one year equal to another. The particu lar average is an average of a certain number of years as directed exprefsly by the Act, It will be proper to advert particularly to the various defcriptions of Income and the deductions allowed, as they are brought into one point of view, in the rules and table contained in the Schedule at the end of the Act. Land, from its different tenures and relations, yields an Income to as many and various defcriptions of perfons, as any fource from which Income is derived; and confequently prefents itself as the first object for confideration. It comprehends the firit fourteen rules in the Schedule, and is therein differently confidered; first, with relation to the occupier, as owner, or tenant; and fecondly, with relation to the landlords mediate, and immediate, in cafes of de mife; and thirdly, in relation to the nature of the confider ation given by the tenant for the exclufive enjoyment thereof, Before entering into a confideration of thefe diftinctions it may be proper to notice the general rule which the Legislature has adopted for eftimating the annual value of landed property. It is well known that lands, of exactly fimilar quality, and under precifely the fame management, produce different rents, in different places, in proportion as the rates, taxes, and affeffments are heavy or light, and as they are fubject or not to tithes, or thofe tithes are taken in kind, or fatisfied by compofition. Under the former Act, the rent was confidered as the leading criterion of value; this was an unjust criterion for the rent is neceffarily lower in a place where the rates, &c. are high, and higher in a place where those charges are light. In this Act the rent of land, if let, (or, if not let, what would be the rent according to the accuftomed rent of lands of the like quality in the neighbourhood), and all parochial and other taxes, rates, and affeffments charged upon the occupier in refpect of the land, and alfo the value of tithes, if taken in kind, or of the fatisfaction paid for tithes, are to be added together; and onefourth being taken from the aggregate thus formed, the re, mainder is then taken as the annual value upon which the Income is to be estimated. Thus, fuppofe the rent would be L.100 per annum; the parochial rates, and other rates payable within the year £.25; and the value of or the compofition for the tithes £.35 per annum ; making together from which deduct £.160 Thus, whatever variation may arife in the actual rent of different lands of equally productive value from the different amounts of rates and other outgoings to be borne by the refpective tenants, an average is obtained, as the fair estimate of annual value; it being generally confidered by men of experience, that the amount of taxes, &c. upon an average throughout the kingdom, is equal to one quarter of the outgoings; the remainder therefore forms the average, or what would be the rent, in all cafes, were the other outgoings uniform; and this average therefore forms the annual value. The owner or tenant, in eftimating the value of land in this way, is not obliged, under the words taxes, rates, and This 1 Lands cecupied by the owner. affements charged on the lands, to include any personal taxes, &c. charged upon him in any other respect. 3d. [The Mode of eftimating all Defcriptions of Income fubjec to Affement. In the first cafe mentioned in the rules, viz. "Income of "lands occupied by the owner," the perfon to be charged is in the receipt of the whole profits of landlord and tenant : the annual value, upon which his income is to be taken, is not only the rent which the tenant would pay, but also fuch further fum as an owner may reasonably be fuppofed to gain above that rent; which by the Act is taken at not less than one-quarter, or more than one half, of the annual value, estimated as aforefaid. Thus, in the inflance before put, the £.100 rent at of annual value will give his income at 39 130 fubject to all the deductions allowed thereout, which are noticed hereafter: but this increase can only be fuppofed to accrue where the owner occupies the land from choice, and with a view to perfonal accommodation or profit ; and therefore a beneficial regulation is introduced which takes into confideration the ftate of a farm falling into the hands of the landlord, at the expiration of a leafe, or death, or failure of a tenant, and allows a period of eighteen months, or nearly two crops to the owner, before the full eftimate,adopted with refpect to owners, fhall be taken as the criterion of value; and until that period the owner is to be charged at the amount of rent only. The rent here fpoken of is commonly termed rack rent, or the full confideration referved upon a demife; and therefore where a rent reserved forms the whole confideration for the exclufive enjoyment of lands demifed, fuch lands are confidered as demised at rack rent; and, in the construction of this act, it must be fo confidered, whether the rent referved-be the full value according to the state of improvements of the land, or not. The value of fuch property is to be taken at the fair rent at which it would let unfurnished; but in no cafe, at lefs than the fame is rated at with a view to the tax upon inhabited houfes by 38 George III. c. 40. This kind of property may be confidered as evidence of Income, the enjoyment may be taken as equal to what might be be procured by the payment of the like rent; which way of confidering the fubject has a tendency to equalize the rate upon different defcriptions of perfons; for inftance, one man lays out £.2000 in the purchase of a houfe, and lives in it; another lays out on intereft £2000 and pays the rent of a houfe with the produce. The latter is unquestionably a part of the income; and if owners were not called upon to contribute for the value of the houfes occupied by themselves, the renters of houfes according to the fame principle would be entitled to deduct the amount of the rent they paid. Lands demifed at rack rents are taken as affording Income Lands demif to the owner to the full amount of the rent reserved. to tenants. of a fine paid, and lent refervfideration of a ed, or in con fine only. The rent is taken as part of the amount of Income, as in Lands demised cafes of rack rent, and the fine reduced to an average. in confideration Such cafes will particularly occur with refpect to all church leafes, and leafes on lives: thefe differ in their nature and duration, being for twenty-one years renewable by ufage at the end of feven years, in which cafe the fine should be estimated on the average of feven years; or for forty years, renewable at the end of fourteen, in which cases the fine will be estimated on the average of fourteen years; or for a life, or lives, in which cafes, the fine will be estimated on a computation of the ufual duration of fuch life or lives. The eftimates must be made on a fuppofition of fines actually received (not perhaps by the prefent poffeffor but by former poffeffors) in refpect of the fame eftate, and upon the value of fuch portion of the fines, as turns out to be the refult of a just average: the tenures are however common in many parts of the country, and fo well known, that little difficulty will arife in fettling this average. The above instances are given as inftances generally occurring, fome others may be in existence, to which the Commiffioners will apply the rules of the Act as they occur. These are governed by the fame rules that have been ob- Houfes demifed ferved in cafes of lands under fimilar circumftances. upon at to tenants at fmaller rents with a fine, or Tithes taken by Tithes, whether taken in kind, or by compofition, are to be estimated upon an average of three years *. The *This rule includes thofe cafes where the tithe is taken in kind, either by the owner of the tithes, or by the occupier of the land; in owners. the |