Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-10-27 | Page 50 | Says Revenue Bill is Now Complete

SAYS REVENUE BILL IS nk COMPLETE , ! John C, Howard Declares J Proposed Measure Is Admittedly Ad-mittedly Unfair, DIFFICULTIES MANY Discrimination Against the Mining and Oi! Inter-. Inter-. ests Is Charged. ' John C. Howard, president of the Utah Oil Refining- company, has just returned from Washington, where he has been v.orking with the national petroleum war service committee on the matter of taxation taxa-tion of mining and oil properties covered cov-ered in the new revenue bili now being drafted for enactment into law within the next few weeks. He has also been attending at-tending conferences with the treasury officials, of-ficials, who are now determining the valuation of mining and oil properties in order to arrive at the amount of tax to be paid under the proposed revenue hill. The problem of raisin $8,000,000,000, said Mr. Howard, in taxation, is very complex and stupendous and it is on-c:ded on-c:ded by even the best economists that it is difficult to draft a tax law in such a short time that would be absolutely fair and equitable to all concerned. Wastage Is Factor. On account of their wastage character, charac-ter, mines, oil properties and timber lands have been discriminated against In the tax law of 1917 and also as proposed In the law of 191S. The theory of the war profits tajc is based entirely upon the capita! invested, and often a vaJ-uable vaJ-uable mine or oil property hrs been found with a small amount of money and in the firit few months the original capital cap-ital invested has been taken out, leaving virtually no capital in the property and in such cases where the present Ikw la applied the tax is the equivalent of confiscation confis-cation of the property itself in order to I pay the tax. The ways and means committee of the house and the senate finance committee, also the trear ur officials. ar anxious to ellmf nste any inequality and have called Into conferences a great many M and mining men from all ov-r the United States with a view of cettini? their ideas. The representatives of the American mining congress, in conjunction with the representatives from tho national petroleum petro-leum war service committee, have, had many conferences with the members of congTtss and treasury oftlcials. who bam charge of the drafting of the tax bill and after getting the temperament of the congress con-gress and the treasury department. Joint committees of the above organization got out a pamphlet suggesting certaJn changes in the proposed bill. Alleges Discrimination. It Is admitted lfi Washington that the bill as now proposed Is higtuy discriminatory discrimina-tory against mining and oil lnt?re.-ts and in fact ag-alnst corporations In general and that tvt. and one-half billions of the etgh' billion dollar tax must come out of ,on'.Ulon, whereas Individuals MX only required to pay the balance of two and one-half billions through the Income, excise and consumption taxes It la an admitted fact in Washington that hundreds of thousands of Individuals who have received irore than $-000 per year have never made a. ret urt i to the government, that tht condition of affair Is becoming appalling and that congreaa will have to remedy this sit nation. "Fortunately," concluded Mr. Howard, "w" were able to have the finance committee com-mittee accept several amendments which will materially aid all new dc vrlopments In mining and oil business and will not retard n w c&pltal or dtaooonfe the prospector pros-pector or so-called wiidLtter."