Although the doctrine has long been advanced that a minimum of subsistence should and what taxes should allow exemption. A minimum of subsistence is a necessary be exempt from taxation, it has been uncertain what such a minimum should include cost of population; and taxes on subsistence tend to be shifted. It is sometimes that exemption of a minimum of subsistence would be impracticable on economie political grounds. While the theory is frequently advanced that a minimum of suh sistence should be exempt from taxation, our tariff duties and sales and property taxes encroach upon subsistence, although income and inheritance taxes are warded away from subsistence. In an exemption program, the absolute necessities of existence should Arst be exempt, and the level of exemption should be raised as conditions warranted A minimum of subsistence could be measured by government boards on the basis of the relative factors involved. In our tax systems more weight should be given to ability to pay and the principle o progression.