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Show RU3VIL TAX PLAN WOULD PAY CURRENT TAXES There has been considerable discussion dis-cussion about the Ruml-pay-as-you-go income tax plan which suggests sug-gests that taxes on income be applied ap-plied as payments on the current year's income, instead of the previous pre-vious year. Just at this time, as September 15 approaches, there are millions of income tax payers trying to find the money to pay the third installment on their income tax for what they earned in 1942. How it would benefit them to consider the payment as applicable on 1942 incomes escapes us. It is apparent, of course, that if an individual had a larger income in 1941 than in 1942, there would be a benefit. To this extent the treasury department woud lose money. The unanimity with which the Ruml tax plan has been hailed in certain quarters leads us to the conclusion that the chief beneficiaries benefi-ciaries would be the large corporations corpor-ations which had big profits in 1941. If the year is skipped and the present payments accepted on 1942 income, these comorations would enjoy a ta-free year which is worth something when the year was, as 1941, a pretty good year for profits. There woud be no immediate loss to the government because incomes in-comes in 1942 will be more than those of 1941. Just the same, the government would skip the taxes that accrued on 1941 income and, some years from now, when incomes in-comes drop, if they do, the net loss to the taxpayers would be considerable. con-siderable. If the Ruml plan has any merit,! it might be applicable to small in-' dividual incomes. Usually the possessor pos-sessor of such a stipend pays his income tax out of the next year's earnings and, when a bad year follows fol-lows a good one, the pain is terrific. ter-rific. This is not the case with well-managed well-managed corporations which set aside a per centage of their profits for tax purposes each year. |