Ray's New Practical Arithmetic · Arts. 206–209 · Unit 21: Taxes
99. State and local taxes
Goal: Your child finds a town's tax rate from its valuation, total tax and poll tax, and uses a tax table to find one person's tax.
You'll need
- Paper and pencil, or a slate or small whiteboard
What's in the book
Page 269 defines taxes (Art. 206) and State and Local Taxes (Art. 207). Page 270 explains valuation and assessors, and starts finding the rate (Art. 208). Page 271 works it with a rule and problems. Page 272 builds a tax table (Art. 209), and page 273 has its problems. Answers are printed.
The lesson, step by step
Warm-up
Ask: Who pays for the roads, schools and fire engines in our town?
The words
A tax is money paid by the citizens of a country for the support of government or for other public purposes.
A tax upon the person is called a poll tax; upon property, a property tax.
The valuation is the estimated worth of the property.
The rate of taxation is expressed as so many mills on each dollar of taxable property, or as such a per cent of it.
A mill is a tenth of a cent. A poll tax was a flat tax on each man, an old custom.
Work the book's example
A town is valued at $1049905, with 483 polls at $1.50 each, and must raise $13323.36. Poll tax: $1.50 × 483 = $724.50. Property tax: $13323.36 − $724.50 = $12598.86. Rate: $12598.86 ÷ $1049905 = $.012, or 12 mills on $1.
Divide the property tax by the valuation; the quotient is the rate of taxation.
The tax table
Look at the tax table on page 272 (rate 1.74 mills).
James Turner's property is valued at $7851, and he pays poll-tax for 2 persons: what is his tax?
From the table: $7000 → $12.18; $800 → $1.392; $50 → $0.087; $1 → $0.002. That makes $13.66, plus $2.50 poll tax: $16.16.
Guided practice
Do these together:
Upon a valuation of $2876475 the tax is $18409.44: there being no poll-tax, what is the rate?
John Brown's property is valued at $2576, and he pays poll-tax for 1 person.
Independent practice and check
Your child works the remaining problems on pages 271 and 273. The book prints the answer at the end of each problem line. Have your child cover the answers with a strip of paper, work the problem, then slide the strip down to check.