Show T The Loss in n Revenue j j CHAIRMAN FORDNEY of the tho Housa ways and J means committee is beginning to r realize alize the tho far- far reaching effects of tJi the stock dividend decision and the necessity of doing something immediately to recoup the enormous losses in iii revenue which will result there there- from It is not only the which the tho revenue bureau burean has estimated as the direct loss which is in insight insight insight sight that causes m most st concern It is the billions that will be lost by the evasion to be accomplished herca hereafter ter by failing to distribute actual cash on earnings and putting them in Ufo tile form of stock dividends that can be held beld f for r a decade or so until the tho taxation burdens are arc eased cased off and then sold at a handsome profit There is absolutely nothing in tho law now to prevent pre pro vent rent this procedure and that it will be bo resorted to by byall byall byall all the tho great grent profit-making profit corporations there is no room for Ifor doubt The supreme court decision pointed the way Stock dividends arc are not income but only omy pieces of paper representing undistributed earnings says the decision So the big concerns and md tho the little on ones s too will feel fecI free at the ho regular dividend periods simply to to change the form of the pieces s of paper thC they W will issue from checks on the bank to certificates of stock It will make very little difference to tho the stockholder a. a as he can realize the tho money by ing the tho stock at the bank It is true he cannot dispose of t the e stock without liability to income tax but under this method there will be he little occasion to sell unless a stringency in money comes along and the bank presses for payment There seems to be a 1 growing sentiment in favor of casting away the income and excess profits tax tu and supplementing them thein with some other fo for form n that hat will be bemore bemore bemore more equitable more practical and that will win produce more revenue though as yet the su suggestions are l Ions lous us Some Som members of Congress and many business businessmen 4 men are inclined to favor or the the much discussed tax tID on sales of all articles whether b by the tho wholesaler the tIle middIe middie mid mid- dIe dle man or the retailer It is defended on the tho ground that t even if collected four or five times on tho tim same article it would still be less of a burden od oa initiative than the present excess profits tax |