OCR Text |
Show A WISE VETO. Governor Bamberger's veto of the inheritance in-heritance tax bill will, we are satisfied, bo commended by the great majority of the people of the state. The present inheritance in-heritance tax law of Utah, as far as it affects the tax on property going to direct heirs, is the third highest in the United States. The bill vetoed by the governor is much more drastic than this radical law now in effect. Neitler the Existing law nor the proposed law makes any distinction in the tax as it affects direct heirs and collateral heirs, although al-though this distinction is properly recognized rec-ognized in every other state law on the i subject in the United States. In seventeen sev-enteen states there is no inheritance tax on property going to direct heirs, . and in all other states having such a law (and forty-two states have similar laws), with tho exception of Arkansas , and California, the tax on direct heirs is ; lower than Utah's. In many instances-. instances-. the tax on collateral heirs is Higher ; than the present Utah law. i The effect of such a 'law as that , vetoed by Governor Bamberger would ' be to impel wealthy men to make joint , tenancy arrangements with their wives i or families, or to organize their estates into corporations and distribute the , stock representing the assets so as to avoid any payment under the law. AV'e believo that the law that has been , vetoed, under tho evasions which tin-; tin-; questionably wTould have resulted, would have brought less money into the state . treasury than flows into it through the operation of the existing law. Another possibility that would necessarily have to be faced, but for the governor's veto, would bo the removal of w-ealthy men and the place of business of corporations corpora-tions from the state. Governor Bamberger's action iD vetoing this bill will meet with the objection ob-jection of few except that extreme class who approach as closely as they dare to that central doctrine of Bolshevism Bol-shevism frequently proclaimed in Russia Rus-sia of late, that no man should have the right to dispose of property at his death, but that instead it should all go to the state. |