Direct Tax
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
A direct tax is one which is dewanded from the very persons who, it is intended or desired, should pay it. indirect taxes are those which are demanded from one person,.in the expectation and intention that he shall indemnify himself at the expense of another. Mill, Pol. Econ. Taxes are divided into “direct,” under which designation would be included those which are assessed upon the property, person, business, income, etc., of those who are to pay them, and “indirect,” or those which are levied on commodities before they reach the consumer, and are paid by those upon whom they ultimately fall, not as taxes, but as part of the market price of the commodity.
Cooley, Tax’n, 6.
Historical evidence shows that personal property, contracts, occupations, and the like, have never been regarded us the subjects of direct tax. The purase is understood to be limited to taxes on land aud its appurtenances, and on polls.
8 Wall. 533.