| Show better news for I 1 income acome tax payers in ili wednesdays iano i sno of tho VEDETTE we undertook to unravel sonic some of tho in trica cies of the income tax law by tho the light ligh t of the decisions of tho the corniss ioner of internal revenue Amon among gother other things re referring ferrin to the difficulties in tile the way of a practical il understanding of the law wo we said in addition to this there have bavo been so many amendments to the on original inal act and bo many decisions of the de department part ment nt at washington construing con cou and modifying it that we doubt it anybody outride tuo the office of the of Int emil ernd revenue can ma make 1 e the necessary riffi affidavit davit and ad be sure he be is exactly right ri ht our oar c editorial dit orial on tho the subject turns turn out to ba rn exemplification of the of that paragraph we stated that the decisions of the eoe butia atIs at hington held that the gains gain in each kind of busin business must bo be separately returned and the losses incurred iu in ono one sort of business could not be set off the income derived from another and espres ed our oar opinion of the manifest t ini t cs of such ruling brilling our authority ww wa a circular apparently prepared officially for the gu guidance id taco of assessors and published in tho the newspapers for the abo information of the people as au an nd ad ement in our comments vo 0 o coD confined stirl oars elyes to a synopsis pih pis of this cirr circular ular aich wo we find at length in tile tho grid gold fiill evcic under the sub heading of I launer of maling up butt ement of income t the circular saps sm by thu se section tiou of the law the comin bonet ut of inte bial revenue i is Cru powered d to prescribe the forin and manner in w hichi the of jue lacome orlie antt bo bei in nude adek up this ho be hab bab dune done in a printed blank used u aed by tho the abea or aud ud in aanons s and nili gilines ni lines the following fu lowing is a summary ol 01 what har cell then follow vadious rule which xa bocon con bened dan ed into the apropo above 9 quoted noted together with the deci decision of I 1 Commissi commissioner lewis that it bad been the uniform ruling that when a loss is made in a business against alich me aie no gains to offset it is considered a dead loss of capital invested in that thai tho the italics aie in the original from which we copied the circular then goes on as follows 1 1 I how different linds of business must bs be returned separately is sho n by the following iti hulings lings ol at commissioner rollins bollins a 10 lob lo incurred in the prosecution ot 0 one klad k lad ot of bukness bu iness cannot be deducted from gain in business of an different ciar char act acter er nor irom from salary salar lents dividends etc 6 losses incurred in the prosecution of one branch of business cannot be deducted from gain in another since the absolute loss incurred in the prosecution of a single business is indispensably a loss of capital c in in merchandise se can be deducted only from anius in but in this caso case particular branches of dise disc need not be separated so in speculations eions the loss or gain fi om oin stock may offset loss or gain from produce prod cice speculated in in d l merchants must make return of their profits from merchandise without regard to their losses in speculation or gains from interest dividends dividend rents renta or any other source e losses in speculation cannot bo be deducted from salaries nor from gain in mer chandise chan disa when loses aro are sustained in one s peculation e c 1 and gains made in another speculation ula tion i on such lo losses loses ses may be deducted irom from such galus gains losses loses in one branch of merchandise may be deducted fijut gains in any other branch of merch merchandise ahn circular or as it is headed abstract of the annual income tax is being published both east enist and west nest apparently by authority tho rity nud and from its m wording n ne e judged and abill think it emanated fiant the department at washington but whether this is abor so or not there is evidently a screw loose somewhere for tho the decisions of cammi commissioners lewis and rollins appear to have been oi 0 er tamed we aro are indebted to general Gener pl the assessor for this district for fora a volume entitled the internal revenue guide containing tho the law of july 13 with decisions etc edited by charles N emerson rm erson of massachi presume that this is official and contains the latest decisions at all events the officials iu in utah are ara acting under it in the appendix page section 38 we find the following among the instructions to assessors ses fies sors losses incurred in the prosecution of one land kind of business may niad be deducted from gains in another but not irom from those portions or of income derived from fixed investments such as bonds mortgages icuss and the like this is believed to be the latest r tiling ruling on tho the point although right in the teeth of the former uniform decisions of the commissioner as above quoted we heartily concur ia the last ruling as being moro more consar consonant faut with justice and reason and we are very glad to believe that tho the old rulings have been re we still tb talk k it required another overhauling for why lossef should not be deducted from the rains gains in fixed investments bach ns As bonds niort mortgages gages rents and the like as well as from income from other sources i not to us apparent for instance a merchant receives a thousand dollars from rens rends he losses it a thousand dollars in business clearly his gross income is nothing rebas he has made nothing during the year and v m 0 seo see no reason why ho he should be called on oa to pay a tax on income m when heu he be has act actually wally received no income at all I 1 oar attention has also been called to in str action so 13 which contains abnot another her beaming anomaly iz money paid for ft a substitute in the army anny or navy cannot bo be deducted from income money received by a substitute for acting as such must be returned by him as income clearly cle arly tho the department Depart menG does not legai regard A the a abom alom that it is ia a poor rule which does not work both ways lbs As however there was no draft durin during the year 7 1 iba the bovo 1 b C ebion can bo of little moment WO vo aduke alx lx P vers to send in their lists under the section above quoted ae lest t another decision m may como along reverting to the harsil 4 rae 1111 t 11 d optea by commissioners commissioners le ind rollins rolline ja V I 1 5 |
