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Show Tax-Exempt Securities There are approximately 90 billion dollars worth of tax-exempt aecur-I'l-r, bonds of the various i'at's find of tha Unite-cl States, outstanding t0-thy. t0-thy. Thf.'e iej iriti.'s will net be nTcctel fhoull the pople of the-Ui the-Ui Ued States ratify a constitutional p.rtndmi'm siAii-. the federal gov-crt gov-crt mtnt aullnr ty to tax securities of states, niUiile; i'UU"?-. n : 1 ' I ot'f-i local units, and tlia stale - ;r..t'. oiity to tax the Vcurities of the federal t vernmi:nt. Any Chang? in ths iiol-lcy iiol-lcy on these securities will apply to thou; issued in the future, Present holders will net be afT cted. Doubt-la1 Doubt-la1 s this fact ac'.eiuuls for the lad: cf any opo'H!rn to thj taxin of the c tsf. of srculrUes now exempt under M'jte and fedeeral lav. Naturally the holders tf exlst.n securities, not being aff-ct'd by the change, are not at all voc'ierou In opposition to It. But this Is not ,ui intelligent vii iwpolnt toward any public question upon which there Is room for discus sion. It is tinctured with s; luehne-es, an attitude which unfortunately seems to determine the views of nui t of our citizens on pubic question';. ques-tion';. It is regrettable that In this discussion a vast majority of the peo))le aie unable to approach the argument In an unbiased frame of mind and consider it in bhij light of what Is best as a matter of public Volley. The tax exemption provision of toturitles sold by governmental units orlglnaly was sat up became, being exempt from taxation of all kinds, those securities carried a lower rate of int rest. The person with funds teeklng investment could well afford to take tho lower rate of inte.rest bearing bonds because when hi cotei-sid-red their fivedem from taxation their yield! was greater than that on bends yielding a higher rate but subject to taxation. But in the present pres-ent era of low Inteivst rates we find public eectuit-ts, in many eases even with trwir lower return better ui-t-iiest payers than many s cur.tiis wliich are iot exempted from taxation. taxa-tion. So tli samei influence toward lowvr rates do-s not, sB-m to app.y as ioicibly as it did once. long as 15 yuars ago Secretary M-ilon, th'-n h. lad of the, treasury department. was advooatng the removal of tax exemptions on government securities of all kinds. A pr; penetrant majority major-ity of those! who have dcussed the question in the last two decades have beei of the opinion that tax-exempt i.ecuiltits should be1 done away with. Aa mattitr of public policy wre are ...lined to that belief, fh tax-exempt sei:-.i- '. it seeing lo. us. is out cl joint w.lh cur general theory of taxation. Moreover, it is frequently a luiv; to capital otherwise would be invested in productive enterprisei and thuo, work for the people at large. To our mind, it is poor public policy in the extreme to afford any one class of investors an advantage over other classes by issuing (.ecuritiEis which are fivie from taxation. The investor in tax-exempt securities not only ues up his funds so that ho can not be made to pay his snare of thj tax burden, but this cla.ui cf investment in-vestment inevitably operates to Kep st-Agger.ng sums away ircm inv.-st-m-nt in that sore cf en.enpnsj wliich adds to the prosper.ty ci la The caste against Uie tax-exempt security has beien growing for a long timo. It is na.p.m ticulaiiy a paru.su matter-. Men ot all polio.cetl faiths have advocated Uie elimination cf the provision. We steem to be heading head-ing for that elimination. To our way of thiiJdng, UU,' t; a matterof simple; common sensa at-:d tquity. Th.re never wts any real argument in itt-vor itt-vor of exeei.pdng spy sort, cf investment invest-ment from its share cf the tax burden bur-den raid th.ro is no argument, In that d recticn now. It is against tile veiy t.';nce of the principle on which all taxation systems are supposed sup-posed to be; bullded, the piincipl; that all mu-t pay according to then ability Ntsws-m graph, Atlantic. Iowa. |