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Show WHY SALES TAX? SMOOJJELLS B) Senator Heed Smoot.Meinber Senate Sen-ate Appropriations and Finance Committee WASHINGTON. Sept. 4. It has been repeatedly declared that there must bo a lining ot taxes but not u shitting ot them. I want both a lifting nnd a shifting shift-ing ot taxes, and I am convinced tho American peoplo want tho same. The expression "consumption taxes" tax-es" scares tho politician much more than It does American tnxpayor. Every Ev-ery internal tax is a consumption tax. Tha demagogic cry that tho burden now supposedly placed on tho shoulders of the rich would bo shifted shift-ed onto nil the working population of the United States through a sales tax on goods, wares and met Chan-disc. Chan-disc. Is a theory and not a fact. Aud theories never have and never will be accepted as payment for taxes. Some day, not far distant, America Ameri-ca will have a general wales tax lnw. And the sooner such a law Is enacted enact-ed the better It will bo for America. When such a bill becomes part or tho revenue laws of our country, Corress can repeal all the Irritating nagging, discriminatory taxes, am ountlng to hundreds of millions of dolars, and tho excess profits tax which Iiuh worked havoc with busl-sicss busl-sicss concerns. One udvnntagu of such a tax Is Its extreme simpllciw of assessment and collection. The employment by tho taxpayers ot county oxpotts is quite unnecessary, as Is tho burdening of 'ho tax administration' machinery with 'complicated expensive long-Irawn long-Irawn out audit's causing long de-ays de-ays In the collection of taxes. Such a tax Is not Inquisitorial. It docs not raise difficult questions about losses, deportation and the like. Antl It Is more easily allocated among competing Jurisdictions, that n tax upon net Income. Tho tnxpnher could tell to a cent tinder a general sales tax law, with absolute certainty nnd a snlnlinusu of effort, at tho close of business each day, exactly where ho stood as to profits and tax liability. Under tho complicated existing taxes, the taxpayer never knows to a certainty what amount of profit he must adj to Ills business to come out whole. ' Nnturalb ho ndds all ho thinks necessary. And expeilence has demonstrated dem-onstrated that In many eases ho has doubled or trebled the amount. The inovltablo result, as the goods' pass alonn to ultimate consumer. Is a pyramiding of prices. Srany of the taxes Imposed under tho present rovenuo laws aro disguised dis-guised and heavily Inflated consumption consump-tion taxes. Whon finally paid IV tho consumer they result In nn over-rising over-rising cost of tho nccssarles of life. They have promoted extravagance and Inflation, restricted competition, obstructed tho development or our natural resources, discriminated between be-tween taxpayers and are next to Impossible to administer. A general sales lax law, applied allko to all mercantile transactions, would, on tho contrary, make possl-blo possl-blo rar greater productivity nnd leavo nil taxpayers satisfied, because all would pay at tho same rate. |