Show ECONOMIC highlights industrial news review next march 1 a good many americans will have a rude awakening they will learn for the first time that war and defense are an costly business for on that date the highest income taxis taxes ver iver levied in this country will be due and payable everyone knows that the new tax bill is severe but it is probable that relatively few know just how much of thair income it will take A comparison of the old tax bill with the new tells the story under the old law a single person with net income paid the federal government overn ment 84 in direct ier ier the new law he must pay under the old law a married person with no dependents and a acome paid under the new law he must pay 1305 and the ew bew tax bill reaches down into mome in levels which were never never touched before for instance under he ae old law a married person earning I 1 2000 a year was not taxed at I 1 all under the new law he must ay 37 in the upper income brackets ery substantial increases have al w 0 o gone into effect A married man or example without dependents md earning a year paid under the old law next year ie must pay an increase of nore more than 50 per cent in the highest income brackets the increases are proportionately much fessand les sand for a sound reason that reason is that people with incomes of great size have long been taxed to the very hilt for example under the old law la v a married person with an income of 1000 a year had to pay the federal treasury close to three quarters of t under the new I 1 law aw hr he will pay something over the heaviest burden of the new law however falls on corporations a I 1 ons rather ra ther than on individuals the h e r regular re e 9 corporation income tax rates have been upped and in addition very large increases in corporation excess profits taxes have been enacted A corporation with a net income of a year or more must pay a regular tax of 24 per sent ent on excess profits of it must pay 45 per cent in addition where the old rate was 35 per cent when excess profits pass t must pay 60 per cent furthermore the new law contains a provision which makes the burden on corporations considerably higher than the percentage figures indi ate to quote the U S news under the old law the normal taxes ame out first and the excess pro its taxes were levied on what was eft the new law provides that the icess profits taxes come out firt first nd the normal taxes apply to what t left since the excess profits rates re much higher than the normal ates the corporation fares much worse by the change heavy as this tax bill is the treasury estimates that it will nean mean an increase in federal reven te le of only a year 9 so 0 ar we have appropriated about SO for military purposes of which fifty billion dollars ts is or our own defense and ten billion s for aid to britain in short the revenue evenue produced by the record breaking new taxes will be only a arop in the bucket in relation to the cost of our arms anns policy program the general opinion is that a far tougher tax bill will have to be enacted before very long possibly next year current english income taxes which are throe three or four times as heavy as ours indicate what hap pens when a nation goes to war in the mechanized modem manner the individual will not have met his share of new taxes when he signs his check for his income tax and sends it in to the collector of internal revenue in addition th khz a new bill levies a large number of commodity taxes liquor automo biles household furnishings amuse amusa ment enterprises etc are to be sub ly taxed and the consumer of course will have to pay As this column has pointed out before there are two facets to heavy taxation one the obvious one is the production of 0 more revenue the other is to reduce the publics purchasing power and so help prevent or slow price inflation but some believe that the new tax bill does not go far enough so far as the last goal is concerned they believe that a system of compulsory sav ng will have to be put into effect d during this period of rising incomes and declining supply of commodities whatever happens it is clear that we are just beginning to learn leam at first hand the financial sacrifices that the defense of our hemisphere makes unavoidable |