TAX CLASSIFICATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE

concept of " likeness " is the core of classification, its meaning for taxes will arise from the development of this discussion. An orthodox definition of a tax will be used, namely, a compulsory, periodic payment by residents of a state for its maintenance and for other public purposes. The purpose of classification is the creation of order in a tax system. Seligman stressed this purpose which " conduces to accurate definition and prevents looseness of expression and confusion of thought; it (classification) may have important practical results in deciding questions of fact and in assigning definite values to doubtful categories; it points out contrasts and resemblances and, by eliminating or combining what is common, often suggests a clearer conception of the subject matter."1 These are general statements. Two applications will secure their meaning. First, the making of a budget by a governor and his financial officers in one of our forty-eight States. Although some State budgets emphasize appropriations for expenditure even to the exclusion of estimates of revenue, a majority of the legislatures receive from the governors an over-all projection of both expenditure and revenue in the budget document.2