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48
disadvantage compared with the purchaser of a high ground
rent. He might, in fact, be deprived of the whole of the
income which he had purchased. Under some suggested
methods of rating ground rents, or "ground values." this
disadvantage would be felt by the occupier, and the disadvantage
would be increased in cases where the lease of
property in an improving district had been purchased at
some interval after the erection of the house, because the
purchaser would have paid a larger premium on account of
the low ground rent, while he would also pay a larger
proportion of local rates than if he had paid a smaller
premium and stood at a higher ground rent. Another
element of inequality is the disproportion between ground
rent and rack rent in the case of old leases, say those
granted 50 years ago, compared with new leases.
6.—The report of the County Council does not suggest how
improved, or leasehold, ground rents, rent charges, or
premiums, which are capitalised rent, are to be rated. It
Avould clearly be unjust to tax an owner in respect of a
premium which has been received and expended by his predecessor
in title from whom he has inherited the property.
7. — It has never yet been proposed to rate interest on mortgages.
What is to hinder a freeholder from taking a premium of
£1,000, or a mortgage (in lieu of a premium) for £1,000.
and a ground rent of 20s. per annum, instead of a ground
rent of £40 Avithout premium or mortgage. In the one case
he might, under some suggested systems of rating ground
rents, pay rates on £1, and under the latter on £40. In
each case the balance of the rates levied on the house (and
site) would be paid by the occupier.
8.—If "ground values," as distinguished from grounds rents, are
to be assessed, how can the figure be arrived at except by
some arbitrary valuation on a hypothetical basis ?
9. —Another practical difficulty which would have to be faced
would arise in the case of incomes charged by a settlement
upon a number of estates comprising both urban property,
some let on a ground rent and some not so let, and