Show I I F r I LOOKING UP I By DR FRANK CRANE CRANE Tax Publication 1 UGH excitement is is still being caused b by bythe MUCH the publication of the income tax tax reports There seem to be two passages in the law lone one forbidding such publication under penalty and the other calling for it I The inspection of the income tax reports has raised a tood bod deal of t trouble For instance in in- stance stanc a house in the clothing trade it was ws said sent a representative to the collectors collector's office to find out how m much ch taxes taxes' were paid by a a 1 business rival firm and their offices A jewelers jeweler's firm desired information regarding A tt number of customers who had be been slow in meeting their bills A bond brokerage house was evidently on the lookout for prospective customers The passage passage of the law requiring the publication pub pub- of income income tax returns was conceived in envy and andin in hatred of the rich the part of orthe the poor It was an unwarrantable invasion of privacy and it has bas aroused considerable dp- dp p- p position on n the thc part of those who did not care to have llave tl their incomes published But we can go back further and we find that the whole income tax business is founded I upon a wrong i theory It is not part of the governments government's nt's business to equalize the incomes of its citizens Those incomes will always be I unequal so long as as hum lium human ll ii ability and human J l I opportunity are unequal S 1 People should be taxed for or what they I i spend not for what they make A A A. simple II I IIi tax levied upon all that people buy exempting exempting exempting exempt exempt- I ing something like would be the correct cc tax This is the sales tax The income tax is founded upon the robber theory that it is the business of the government government government govern govern govern- ment to take money wherever they can find it All tax should be e based upon the value of the protection which a country gives its subjects That value is better measured d by what people buy than by what they earn I A sales A-sales tax would woul l be an equitable and fair fai I method of avoiding the whole difficulty Cop Copyright Tight 1924 by br th the McClure Newspaper NewspaperS I S Syndicate I |