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 Schaaffhausens.* 
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 al- 
lotment 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” 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,‘ nor have 

* See this volume, p. 339.-" Hedwig Boelling-° Emma Engels 

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* (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 al- 
lowed to pass, for immediately the authorities start making trouble 
with a ftrm on account of underdeclaration and demand that it pro- 
duce 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 ex- 
pressly 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 

2 Einkommensteuerdeklarationsverfahren in the original. 

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