Profitable Tax

One of the Nazi Government's most convenient and lucrative sources of revenue, yielding almost as much as the state liquor taxes, is its flight tax. This 25% levy is laid on the capital of all refugees whose income during any single year since 1931 reached $8,000 or who have had a one-year property assessment of $20,000 in the same period. Evidence of the thoroughness with which the Nazi regime has applied this tax was given last week in Berlin when revenue reports revealed that since the advent of Chancellor Hitler in 1933 the tax has brought in a total of 313,000,000marks ($125,200,000). Swelled by payments from Jews who fled from Austria after the Anschluss, the flight levy for the months of April through July reached a record high of 61,000,000 marks ($24,400,000).

The flight tax was originally imposed during the economic crisis in 1931 by former Chancellor Dr. Heinrich Bruening to shut off the flow of German capital abroad. Dr. Bruening, lecturer in government at Harvard, steers clear of Germany today and recently was reported visiting in London with his old friend, Winston Churchill, but his flight tax was taken over by Adolf Hitler in 1933 and made a good thing when Jews had to flee. In the two years before Hitler the tax brought in but 2,876,000 marks. With the start of the Nazi anti-Jewish drive and the application of the Nuernberg laws, however, receipts multiplied until in fiscal 1937-38 they reached a total of 81,000,000 marks. Two years ago the yield was not large enough to please. Prospective refugees who fall in the taxable categories were then required to give security to tax authorities to insure payment of the flight tax in case they decided to leave.

Most Jews consider themselves lucky if they can get across the border with 6%-8% of their original possessions. A Jew of moderate circumstances desiring to leave Germany must first surrender 25% of his capital. Then, after he has liquidated the rest of his assets, generally at considerable loss, he must either buy German goods for his personal use abroad (and pay 100% tax) with the remainder or accept German blocked-marks in exchange, since Nazi currency restrictions forbid the export of more than $12-$24 in cash after payment of passage. These blocked-marks may be sold only to the German Government Bank at a 92% discount. Last week it was revealed that since the start of the Nazi regime more than $500,000,000 worth of refugee property has been put under Government control.

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