| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 4 February 1892 |
ENGELS TO HERMANN ENGELS
IN BARMEN
London, 4 February 1892
Dear Hermann,
On 1-2 February I received prompt payment of £ 30 ON DEMAND from Pferdmenges & Co., for which very many thanks; the money certainly came in most handy, for after the Christmas expenditure January and February are always a lean time for me and I have to economise. I take it the firm doesn't require an official receipt?
Many thanks too for your information about the Schaafhausens.[1]
I don't intend to get rid of them for the time being, but there is always the possibility that other companies over here might make me an allotment of shares at par which would give me a higher return and I wanted to know how to set about things should that happen.
I was very glad to hear all the news from home and to know that on the whole everyone is getting on so well. I am delighted to learn that Hedwig[2] intends to write to me again some time. When you next see her please tell her that I have chalked that up on my slate and shall hold her to her word.
And now I must say how very grateful I am for the pictures. You all certainly look pretty sprightly still, especially Emma,[3] nor have you yourself become more saturnine than you were years ago. Heaven knows, you and I always look so terribly serious in our photographs. I am getting my own back by enclosing two of myself which admittedly were taken a year ago (February 1891) but I don't think I have changed much since then — if the others want any they are very welcome to them, provided they reciprocate.
I don't know whether your procedure regarding the declaration of income-for-taxation-purposes[4] (a 13-syllable word!) varies very much from ours, but over here it is what we have been used to for the past 40 years or more and, between ourselves, I have yet to come across a case in which a firm makes a true declaration of income; as a rule it is understated by 30%, 40%, 50% and more. All this is allowed to pass, for immediately the authorities start making trouble with a firm on account of underdeclaration and demand that it produce its books — which they are entitled to do—there is a general outcry from the mercantile world at such inquisitorial goings-on and the entire press is up in arms. The only thing the authorities can do in practice is increase the assessment at their own discretion. If the firm concerned then refuses to accept it, it must produce its books. As often as not that is allowed to pass, but should the authorities adopt this stratagem with the wrong firm, namely a firm whose earnings for the current year have, for once, actually been at a rate no higher than that declared in previous years — then the uproar breaks out again. Traders, therefore, have a measure of protection, but we poor rentiers are made to bleed, for 1. tax on our dividends, mortgage interest, etc., is actually deducted before we receive the money and 2. woe betide us if we have any other sources of income and do not voluntarily notify the taxation authorities of them, if, indeed, we don't literally ram this notification down their throats. The £18 or £24 which must be expressly notified each year in respect of my income over there cause me more trouble than all the rest put together—so far as tax is concerned. So I should be most grateful if you would send me my statement as early as possible. We get the forms on 1 May and have to return them completed on the 20th and, in the event of my being messed about, I shall have to produce that particular statement as evidence, so it has got to tally.
With love to you all in Upper and Lower Barmen.
Your old
Friedrich