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Show TAX PROBLEM Congress nade jno provision of the excets profits tax. Legislation in thiB respect cannot long be avad-ed, avad-ed, for aside from the inadequate features of the tax, there is the reason rea-son that ap the conditions which create the so-called excess profits cease to exist, the revenue will disappear, dis-appear, and the Government requires requir-es a steady income from a dependable depend-able source. Of the substitutes suggested the simplest and most easily understood is the sales tax on the gross income from the overturn of commodities. Such a tax of one per cent, it is estimated, es-timated, would produce $2,000,000,-000 $2,000,000,-000 of revenue. This estimate is based on annual retail saies ui snout sn-out $75,000,000,000 of commodities ' which by the time they have reached reach-ed the ultimate consumer in the various var-ious steps of reselling and remanu-facturing remanu-facturing have passed through trans action representing an aggregate taxable base of two hundred billion dollars. A simple illustration is that of the progress of a bushel of wheat from ljarmer to consumer. The several steps and the resultant tax are: Farmer gets $2.00, tax .02. Produce dealer gets $3.20, tax 022 Miller gets $3.00, tax .03 Wholesale flour dealer gets $3.50, tax .035 Baker gets $5.00, tax .05. Grocer gets $7.20, tax .072 Total, $22.90, tax $ .229. To the objection of increased cost to the consumer, the answer is that the excess profits tax has been, and any form of taxation on production produc-tion will be passed on to the consumer con-sumer with a large extra margin added ad-ded to prices to assure enough additional addi-tional profit to pay the tax. It will be an advantage to know definitely to what extent prices are to be loaded load-ed by reason of tax. Mercantile Trust Review, San Francisco. |