Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Side 287

PROLEMS OF TAXATION IN DENMARK 253
otherwise did not lead to palpable results. In fact, there would
have been good reasons for the great Taxation Commission set
up in 1937, which is to subject the whole fiscal legislation to
a critical judging, to intervene, but its work had gradually come
to a standstill. The central administration perhaps might have
tried to perfect the machinery of assessment, but in 1943 it got
other things to think about. It also missed the impulse of a lack
of money in the State and the municipalities. Now, on the con-
trary, there was an abundance of money. The above-mentioned
increase of the taxation on income and capital gave a very fine
yield, and this also applied to the increases that had taken place
in the sphere of excise duties. The following figures from the
public accounts of 1938—39 (conditions before the War), 1940
—41 (the first years with the new rates of taxation), and 1943
—44 (influenced by the continued increase of the level of in-
come), show the displacements:
Yield of State Taxation 1938—39 Mill. Kr. 1940—41 Mill. Kr. 1943—44 Mill. Kr.
Taxes on real property 13.9 14.4 14.9
Tax on income and capital 196.3 332.8 484.7
Stamp duties, etc. 22.0 21.8 25.7
Excise duties 391.9 547.1 652.3
Fees, perquisites, etc. 17.6 15.4 20.5
In all 641.7 931.5 1,198.1
transferred to the municipalities 78.4 44.8 23.6
Net income 563.3 886.7 1,174.5
The State thus has more than doubled its revenue during
the period of war, and it might have gone not a little farther
if the population had shown a greater moral power of resistance
to the increased claims for payment. If the above-mentioned
average percentage of taxation is applied to the amount of mil-
liards missing, the State and the municipalities together should
have failed to obtain at least about 150 million Kr. revenue
and thus missed the possibilities of being able to reduce the rates
of taxation correspondingly, or, if from considerations of mo-
netary policy it seems dangerous to proceed to reductions, of
keeping so large an amount in reserve. Now, it is true, it is