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Show OTHEHSjnEWS Rencently the writer purchosed j an ice cream cone at a drug store I and was requested to pay a one cent sales tax. Five minutes later ! a soda pop was ordered with an I additional cent added. A few 1 minutes later a ten cent box of . marshmellows extracted another cent. Instead of 2 per cent the purchaser pur-chaser realized that he had paid 15 per cent sales tax. The provision of this law is suchl that the merchant (a merchant is j here used as an illustration) is ! only compelled to remit to the j state 2 per cent on his monthly1 sales. Now what becomes of the, other 13 per cent of my purchase? Did this druggest remit this en-j en-j tire amount to the state? One doesn't have to stretch! their imagination to guess. ! If anyone questions this state-) ment it can easily be verified byi checking with the representatives! j of the state tax commission whoj recently visited the basin in the; Interest of this provision (also that of the one dollar filing fee another jonar saddled on to the backs of the consuming public whose purchasing power has been reduced to the vanishing point.) If the above statement is a fact and it must remain so until refuted refut-ed by figures from the fountain head it reveals a deplorable condition con-dition or lack of forethought on the part of our law makers whereby a condition was created where the merchant can collect a 15 percent sales tax from tjie people whose distress is almost unbearable and only remit 2 per cent to the state. In other words this law enables the merchant to receive a royalty at the expense of the desperately poor consumer. Is there any justice or equity In a law such as this? A lady whose varasity for facts is unquestioned made the statement state-ment that she had requested her merchant to allow her to pay her sales tax at the rate of 2 percent on her purchases at the end of each month this being a charge account. The merchant refused to do so but charged a sales tax on each purchase, thus running the tax much higher than 2 per cent Why not be fair in these matters. I am wondering how long the people will endure this kind of treatment. The attitude of resentment Is forming so fast and sure that a reaction is a terrible thing to contemplate. con-template. Is there a system set up by the state for checking the daily or monthly sals of each seller? or is It left entirely to the honesty of the merchant? I think we will find the latter to be the procedure. One naturally concludes that one who would collect more than 2 and only remit the required amount might not report the full amount of sales. C. W. SMITH |