AN IMMORAL FARCE.

89

a day certain, when the assessors have completed theirpreliminary inquiries, have arranged their assessmentrolls, and opened them for correction. Throughout theState of New York generally, that day is the 1st of July.In the city of New York it is the second Monday ofJanuary . 1 What a man owns in personal property in thecity of New York on the second Monday of January,and the manner in which his investments are made uponthat day, determine the question whether or not he istaxable for personal property.

“Still another element in the combination is the prin-ciple, that in the State of New York the debts of the tax-payer can be deducted from his assessment for personalestate.

“ By combining these different facts, it follows, that ifA, in the city of New York , on the Saturday precedingthe second Monday of January, owned one hundredthousand dollars in taxable personal property, and de-sired to avoid being taxed on it, he would on that daybuy United States bonds to the market value of onehundred thousand dollars and give his note in paymenttherefor. His position, then, upon the second Mondayof January would be :

“(1) That he owned one hundred thousand dollars oftaxable personal property.

1 The different dates on which assessments are made in Brooklyn , Jersey City , and New York City furnish an additional facility for evasion of per-sonal property, by transfers of ownership or subjective sales.—E d.