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WHO PAYS YOUR TAXES?

the tax on real estate owners by investment in bondsand mortgages and ground rents, with agreements andcovenants that the borrower or covenantor shall pay alltaxes levied and assessed upon the principal, interest or

rent. . . .

“ Most of the capital at interest, held by those notengaged in active business, will, under the pressure oftaxation, seek compensation by flight or investment inthese securities, and the weight of the levy would fall inNew York on capital in business.”

No ingenuity of legislation can force the lender to paythe tax on the money loaned. It surely falls on theborrower. If it could be done in any case, it would bein that of mortgages which depend for their validity uponpublic record. Massachusetts has a law intended to taxmortgages. The result is that the common form ofMassachusetts mortgage provides that “ the mortgageorshall pay all taxes and assessments to whomsoever laidor assessed, whether on the mortgaged premises or onany interest thereon, or on the debts secured by themortgage.” Other States have tried the same thing invarious forms, and there is some demand from theunreflecting countrymen that New York should makea “ horse-high, ox-strong, and chicken-tight ” legislativefence against such evasions. One of the ways adoptedb.y the title guarantee companies to avoid such a dangerappears in their ordinary and regular form of mortgage,which reads as follows :