Life of Ahmad — Page 598
INCOME TAX CASE as 598 Head. There were five main heads of this expenditure (1) The guest house, which provided food not only for guests and visitors who came to see Ahmad as but also for widows, orphans etc. (2) The press (3) The school (4) Annual gathering and other meetings (5) Correspondence. The Tahsildar therefore said that in his opinion all this income should be treated as charity, which is not taxable. This report, reproduced in full in the D ar u ratul Imam , is dated August 31st, 1898. Mr. F. T. Dixon, Collector of the District of Gurdaspur, at the time, passed his final orders on September 17th, 1898, as follows: 'This tax is a newly-imposed one and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claims that all his income is applied not to his personal but to the expenses of the sect he has founded. He admits that he has other property but he stated to the Tahsildar that even the proceeds of that, which is classed as land and the proceeds of agriculture and is exempt under 5 (b), go to his religious expenses. I see no reason to doubt the bona fides of this man, whose sect is well-known, and I exempt his income from subscriptions which he states as 5,200 under Sec. 5 (c) as being solely employed in religious purposes. '