Note 140 — Chapter II · : ADAM SMITH

This is the first of the four celebrated maxims enunciated by Smith in his theory of taxation. Here are the other three: “(ii) The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person. (iii) Every tax ought to be levied at the time, or in the manner, in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it. (iv) Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible, over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the State.” (Wealth of Nations, Book V, chap. 2, part ii; Cannan, vol. ii, pp. 310-311.)