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Show Withholding ' on interest Letter to the Editor: I quote from your JACK STRA1 . umn of Jan. 19, 1983 regarding ' withholding: "Too much money is spent and ... lost in the collection process. taxpayer paid their honest tax wee r i;, the tax burden could be tremens reduced. But alas, this is not theca- back to the volumes and volumes . regulations, collectors, courts, i& ' s sentences and burdensome repof When this bill for withholding interest and dividends was passed"; , , tober, 1982 I supported this and i- , think it was good strategy for gej ,? from those cheaters who do notfi i,v income from interest anddi . ,,. Continued on PaReJ ,-v Interest... Continued from Page 2 when they file their tax returns. 1 realize that there are many who purchase tax-exempt tax-exempt bonds and that interest is not taxable. tax-able. Aside from this, however, it is estimated that there is some forty to fifty fif-ty billions of dollars in interest and dividends which is never listed on the income in-come tax forms and no income tax is paid on this taxable income. It is not more unfair for tax to be withheld on interest and dividend income than it is for it to be withheld on wages. It would cost the corporations and financial finan-cial institutions a lot of money to collect this money and remit it to the government. govern-ment. This is certainly a factor to be dealt with; but is no worse than for the hundreds of thousands of employers who withhold tax from their employees. The recipients of interest and dividends would lose the usage of their money for a period of months. Eventually Eventual-ly they would get this 10 withheld tax back. By filing a Federal form 1040, 1040A or 1040 EZ they can get a refund of the amount withheld if they own no tax; or use it as a credit against any tax they owe. It is estimated that eight to ten billions of additional taxes could be collected annually an-nually simply because so many people and firms did not list interest and dividends as a part of their income. Hence, the honest taxpayers are carrying carry-ing more than their share of the load. That is why I think this is good bill for you and me and all the honest taxpayers. It is cost-effective for us. It is the least expensive and the fairest way to collect taxes, even though it costs each of us a little. It is the solution to a lot of problems mentioned by you in the paragraph quoted above. I have written President Reagan, Representative Nielson, our senators and other state representatives expressing these views. E. JOSEPH WINDER Vernal |