OCR Text |
Show I DEMANDS U.S. TREASURY HALT I REPORTED EVASION OF TAXES Rep. Frear Questions Secretary Mellon About Huge Standard Oil Stock Dividends and j Also Asks That Returns of Large In- ; comes Be Made Public WASH INTO TON, Oct 17 Citing reports re-ports that the Standard Oil company of New Jersey liad declared a 4 00 per cent stock dividend. Representative Frear (Wisconsin), Republican mem-L. mem-L. bcr of tho hous ways and means committee, nsked Secretary Mellon in a letter Tuesday if the treasury hud Invoked section 220 of the 1921 reve- Inue act, "which provides methods for reaching holders of surplus when held for UlQ purpose of escaping taxation ," Mr. I' rear also wrote tin- se. ro tary that, according to newspaper dis-ppppj dis-ppppj patches, subsidiary members of the standard on company were declaring various stock dh liiends and that tho United States Steel corporation "will B take the same course with :i surplus H estimated at several hundred mll'lon OPPOSITION AHEAD. In making public his loiter to tho secretary, Mr. Frear announced in u Statement that In tho next congress ho would lead a fight to make all income in-come tax reports public records, nuu-1ng nuu-1ng that these were the only important import-ant government records now kept se-H se-H cret by law. Sonic campaigning will i.. required, Mr. Frear said, to chango the present law. "It may not get far during the short session, " lie added, "but it is certain to be a live Issue, in the sixty-eighth congress." "It is possible," Mr. Frear declared, "that a disclosure of .secret tax reports re-ports held by the treasury will show that over $200,000 00 and possibly several times $200,000,000 is being lost to the government annually through I tax free securities stock dividends I and other escape sluiceways known to fl large taxpayers that should be col- ovr, atti:mit fails "President Hording." said Mr Fnnr H "sought to r$aeh tax free securities by u constitutional amendment, but tor. I some reason the proposal was smothered smoth-ered and never passed the house " Congress, lie declared, alono was responsible re-sponsible for failure to pass correc-tive correc-tive legislation. It the Income tax Is right in principle prin-ciple by taxing Incomes, according to ability to pay through graduated surtaxes." sur-taxes." Mr. Frear declared, "then the law should be enforced equitably. In other words, If the Rockefeller family, fam-ily, for example with a reputed income in-come of a million dollars a day, places its Standard Oil profits in stock dividends divi-dends so as to render them non-taxable, It may be nssumed that It lias equally protected the remaining in- come by large investments in tax free I securities and Instead of paying a hundred million dollars tax annually 'on this enormous income as was gen-I gen-I orally supposed. It may have boon shaved down to one per c nt of that amount. No one can tell because tin, returns are held secret under the law, j Only the treasury knows. MFLLON WKALTIIY MAN. "The administration of the law Ilea with Secretary Mellon, whose absolute honesty is not questioned in following the strict letter of the law, but Mr Mellon is quoted by Kllen to be worth unO, mill. w 1,1, ;, if reasonably a. curate should yield an onnual Income Of about JlG.000.oD0. or more annually annual-ly while his dally Income of $50,000 Is several times his annual salary as secretary of the treasury Whether Mr Mellon avails himself of the same avenues of Income tax escape as .Mr ! Rockefeller is only known to the retary of tho treasury who has th records and what is true of Mr. rockefeller and Secretary Mellon la equally true of many of tho 20,000 individual in-dividual Income taxpayers whose annual an-nual Incomes are supposed to run from $50,000 to $2fi0 000,000 each, if correct reports are to be had. These are all kept secret today." |