Show 0 I 1 ok 0 national topics interpreted t by william bruckart national press building Wag washington Washl hington D C washington As it becomes more painfully apparent that there is no basis upon which seek new to expect present tax sources returns of federal taxation to pro duce sufficient funds to maintain the administration administrations s rate of spending the president and the treasury are peeping into every corner for new sources of money they have al ready recommended to congress that the present nuisance taxes be reenacted re enacted to bring in some five hundred million a year and they are casting their eyes elsewhere for other tax receipts in addition and as a part of the general pinch that the treasury now feels mr roosevelt has asked con gress to revise certain provisions of income tax law to close up loop holes and prevent escape from taxa tion the president presidents s message ies sage to congress on this point was quite bit ter and many observers thought rather unfair but nevertheless he told congress that it was up to the legislative branch to see that there was no tax avoidance the president presidents s message dealt with an alleged moral phase of tax avoidance and that part of his mes sage has provoked much criticism of the chief executive executives s attitude he sought in m his statement to the congress to make it appear that many wealthy persons had avoided taxes and that by so doing they had sinned now the president presidents s view is en titled to consideration and his charge that there is tax avoidance Is correct indeed I 1 believe no one can successfully dispute the charge that there is tax avoidance of a wholesale character in the united states but when the matter is placed in the category of a moral issue it must be examined in a different light the president did not talk about tax evasion in his message he talked about tax avoid ance tax evasion is illegal and immoral tax avoidance is purely and simply the arrangement by an individual so that he pays the low est tax he can and still complies with the law I 1 am inclined to side with those in congress who have criticized the president on the attitude he as fumed As long as congress tells an individual through the language of a law that he must pay so much tax and prescribes the conditions if that individual complies with that direction of congress he does not commit a crime when he pays only that much tax I 1 am constrained to support my view in this instance with the lan ian guage of the late mr justice oliver wendell holmes who as a member of the supreme court of the united states gained probably as much respect as any man who ever sat on the highest bench mr justice holmes said in a decision of the court 21 years ago and now strange ly apropos the following words we do not speak of evasion because when the law draws a line a case is on one side of it or on the other and it if on the safe side it is none the worse legally that a pe per r son has availed himself hm ibell to the full of what the law permit when an act is condemned as an evasion what is meant is that it is on the wrong side of the line indicated by the policy if not by the mere letter of the law again and again courts have held that a citizen may employ any ie le gal means available to him to di minish the tax which he must pay it would seem then that mr roose velt s message used rather ill cho sen and ill advised language when in dealing with questions of tax avoidance he sought to make it ap pear that it was wrong for a citizen to try to save his own money it has been rather interesting to note the type of outbursts editorial and verbal that message has come as a re causes stir suit sult of mr roose belts velt s tax mes asage sage these outbursts have contin aed partly because the president asked congress to make an invests gation of tax avoidance where some very large taxpayers are involved a ll 11 of course congress is going to do that because it will give congress ar ir at least certain individual mem aers tiers an opportunity for publicity and they do not overlook cities for publicity since the discussion of tax ques eions has continued on the basis of the projected investigation it has given plenty of writers an anity to express their opinion in detail many of these critics have be come quite personal in their assault upon mr roosevelt and their bitin biting 9 observations are doing him no good politically at all in fact I 1 have hav e heard some rumblings beneath the surface to the effect that his tax message has hurt him as much po liti cally as his proposal to add six new justices of his own choosing to the supreme court of the united elates states probably the worst of these ariti h cismas appeared in the washington evening star a newspaper that sel don doni i takes a bitter stand on any fusion qu sion the evening star called attention to regulations of the bureau of in revenue which prescribed that a person must count as income anything taken in payment of ices whether that thing be money or some other thing of value it cited the fact that the president oc capies the white house without pay ment of rent and that he has avail able a large staff of servants who man that institution that he is pro vided with automobiles and yachts and various other services and cir cum curn stances without cost editorial ly the newspaper then goes on has the president of the united states unwittingly failed to include in his income tax the value to him of the residence provided by the government which pays him his sal arya ary under these regulations it would appear that even the auto mobiles and the yachts provided by the government should be con in making out an income tax return there is no publication of income taxes and therefore the pub he lic is not informed as to whether the high officials of the government who are provided with residences as some are or with automobiles as many of them are take these things into consideration in reporting their income taxes it would scarcely be an argument to say that residence provided for a public official is not part of his pay cabinet officers for example are not provided with residences by the government they must provide residences themselves at considerable cost it is obvious therefore that a residence given a government official is part of his pay when the president proposed the tax investigation he said that he be lieveld there were pick on a good many mil big ones lions of dollars that could be forced into the federal treasury as a result of such inquiry his ac tion followed sweeping orders issued to internal revenue agents and au diters to review every income tax return with the utmost care the agents and auditors of course will go over the returns filed by the en tire list of income tax payers little as well as big but the congressional investigation will be devoted only to some of the men called by mr roosevelt economic royalists it is obvious that congress cannot go into all returns so congress will pick on the big ones because those men will have names out of which good headlines in newspapers can be written the treasury had a different idea about the investigation which con gress undertook at the president presidents s request the Treas treasury s plan con templates tem plated a number of secret hear ings star chamber sessions and I 1 believe everyone knows what can be had in a star chamber session with bureaucrats operating with all of the powers they possess in our government word of the Treas treasury s ideas did not please congressional leaders and they very quickly put their foot down on the scheme of course members of the house and senate figured they would not share in the political benefits unless they did the investigating I 1 hear much corn com ment to the effect however that an investigation in the manner con gress had decided to make it is nuch preferable to the star chard chain her ber proceedings which the treasury proposed I 1 mentioned that the congressional committee is dealing only with big names the reason for this is plain it would do no good at all in a publicity way for the congles dional groups to call in some small taxpayer who by availing himself of the privileges of the law had been able to reduce his total tax to a comparatively few dollars on the other hand if a big business man an economic royalist claims all of the exemptions and deductions that the law specifies and thereby cuts down his tax he becomes the sub eject or the target for much ballyhoo about tax avoidance I 1 do not see the difference since the president finds himself in a deadlock with congress on his proposal to add n t i w piles work six justices of his on congress own choosing to the supreme court of the united states he has turned to a new approach in dealing with the legislative situation he ile ha has s suddenly loaded congress down with work this is to be distinguished from the course he has followed in his earlier years of his tenure when he submitted only one legislative suggestion at a time now in addition to the court reorganization proposal there is b before P congress the far reaching gov ern mental reorganization plan the billion dollar slum clearance and house building farm tenancy bill and a highly controversial piece ol 01 legislation proposing to establish minimum wages and maximum hours for labor these are in addi tion of course to the tax revision proposition I 1 have discussed above and the annual appropriation bills with the billion and a half relief fund measure 0 western newspaper union |