Show f 4 The New Tax Burden I PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT mixed the bitter PRESIDENT i i with the sweet in his unheralded tax mess message mes mes- s sage ge to congress Tuesday Everybody except Senator Pat Harrison and those who refuse to look look realistically at unpleasant situations has known all along that this congress would have to impose both new and additional taxes It is isa isa isa a truism that everybody would prefer no tax to any tax likewise there is widespread belief i that the best tax is the tax paid by the other fellow But with these things set aside the president suggests the framework for a tax structure relatively popular popular and and politically smart In one fell swoop would be wiped out excises which have been salt in the wounds of business Of these perhaps the graduated corporate in income income income in- in come tax has been the worst throbbing pain in inthe inthe inthe the neck The capital stock tax and the excess profits tax costly nuisances to business have brought joy only to ta tax experts and attorneys The more more complicated a i tax tx x structure the greater is the need for their employment Promise Promise Prom Prom- ise iso of simplification of tax procedure and c corporate corporate corpo corpo- rate accounting is the sugar coating on the bitter pill of higher tax demand Proposing the repeal of the exemption of dividends from lev levies es under the personal in income income income in- in come tax the president puts into the suggestion a modicum n of wealth the theory though the objective is the distribution of corporate gains ains held as undivided profits By this means means he would strike at tax evasion a thing that I makes the little taxpayers taxpayer's blood boil Big shareholders will grumble most most of the little fellows who enjoy little control of of officers officers' officers officers' officers officers' of- of and directorates' directorates acts will like the bigger dividend dividen checks even if taxed A multitude of f people who own no stocks will view it as a the soak tax and give it their okeh The ability to pay theory more widely accepted by the social-minded social categories than by hairsplitting hairsplitting hairsplitting hair hair- splitting tax economists has vote-getting vote appeal Estimated yield of the new taxes is about one sand tand and two thirds billion dollars an increase of over levies under the laws which would be repealed Of this increase the president is at pains to explain plain only coo is actual the actual the other half billion being a substitute substitute substitute sub sub- for the invalidated d processing taxes An additional would be raised by temporary taxes taxeS taxeS-a taxes broader bro der and thinner processing tax on agricultural ra products and a windfall tax tac on retrieved processing taxes paid under protest If this levy were fixed at atI I OO per cent it would make supreme court visages visages visages vis vis- vis- vis ages wry and it would anger processors who guessed right on AAA By a and d large old John Consumer will feel that his tax load has been lifted a trifle Permanent and temporary new levies though adding and make a total of Subtracting the described as a substitute tax leaves a a. anew new tax net of as the actual annual annual annual an an- nual tax burden increase that will have to be borne as long as the temporary taxes are in ef effect ef- ef That is the broadside view of the presidents president's presidents president's presidents president's dents dent's proposals Until congress sets the tax rates and the period over which the temporary taxes will be collected neither corporations ns nor individuals will be able to estimate their respective respective respective tive shares of the additional load |