Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Luigi Nina (1900)

Schullern’s brief German review recommends Nina’s article on the smallest land- and building-tax assessments in Italian tax law for its fiscal argument and its relevance to Austrian reform. Its central claim concerns both the justification and the feasibility of exempting the smallest property owners:

Die Befreiung der kleinsten Grund- und Gebäudebesitzer von den betreffenden Realsteuern wird als eine Folge der modernen ökonomischen Auffassung der Steuer und als steuertechnisch und finanzpolitisch durchführbar nachgewiesen.

English translation: The exemption of the smallest owners of land and buildings from the real taxes in question is demonstrated to be a consequence of the modern economic conception of taxation and to be practicable both in terms of tax technique and of financial policy.

Schullern thus presents exemption as consistent with a modern economic understanding of taxation and practicable in administrative and fiscal terms. He then turns to Nina’s illumination of Italian financial administration, especially the ultimate results of tax enforcement against the smallest properties. The review supplies no figures or detailed examples; its emphasis is on the instructiveness of these outcomes for judging tax arrangements.

The closing sentence transfers the Italian discussion to an Austrian policy horizon:

Manches von dem Gesagten ist für eine wohl bald unvermeidliche radicale Reform auch unserer österreichischen Grund- und Gebäudebesteuerung von Wert.

English translation: Much of what is said is of value for a radical reform, probably soon unavoidable, of our Austrian taxation of land and buildings as well.

This progression—from economic justification, through administrative consequences, to comparative reform—gives the short notice its critical purpose. Schullern endorses Nina’s findings as resources for a radical revision of Austrian land and building taxation that he regards as likely soon to become unavoidable.