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Show THE AMERICAN WAyI TSl; Christmas Spirit, fe,.' Bureaucratic Style By Gcorg Pek E- iT , At one time in America there was a real spirit of Christmas that was before the blighting touch of Uncle Sam's tax collectors col-lectors fell upon it. Come Christmas Christ-mas time something happened to the most irascible and cantankerous cantan-kerous boss he became the very essence of sweetness and light and taking the elastic off the bankroll, he passed out Christmas presents to his employees, em-ployees, deserving and undeserving undeser-ving alike. But Uncle Sam says this is all wrong "horsc-an-buggy" stuff and the boss who is such an old "stick-in-the-mud" as to indulge in-dulge in such silly sentimentality, sentimental-ity, is to be punished for his mistaken mis-taken generosity. What in the world has happened to Uncle Sam? He used to be such a benevolent, ben-evolent, kindly old gentleman. Well, what led me to bring this up is that I've just received a copy of a bulletin sent out to his Managers by J. H. Chapman, President, C. W. Chapman Lumber Lum-ber Company, Waterloo, Iowa. Read what Mr. Chapman says in that bulletin and weep with him: "This company was checked recently by the Federal Internal Revenue Department on Federal Income Tax for 1944. Everything was found in order and O.K.'d except for an item of Christmas presents for employees for the year 1944. "We will be assessed a fine of about $540.00 on that item and the same will probably apply on 1945 and 1946 employees' Christmas Christ-mas presents. "The Chapman Lumber Company Com-pany has given Christmas presents pres-ents to its employees since 1901 and this custom has never been questioned before but times are different. The Bureaucrats are even kicking Santa Claus around for the pound of flesh for Uncle Sam. "We arc a little hazy about the technicality of the law but the gist of it is that any present given by a corporation to any employee em-ployee mus be considered as wages and deductions must be made for withholding tax, social security tax, Iowa unemployment tax, and Federal Excise tax on pay roll. In other words if you give the stenographer a box of candy with a hearty wish for a very Merry Christmas you must at the same time ask her to pay you back about 20 per cent for withholding tax plus ! per cent for social security. Then you must figure out 1.8 per cent for the Iowa Employment Commission Com-mission and 1 per cent for our share'of the social security. "All that is too much for our frazzled brain and nerves which : are by this time about to col- lapse due to Federal kickings-1 kickings-1 around for 15 years. Therefore, will all of you please plan to give all your employees a bonus check this year in lieu of a ham or .a turkey or some candy? Try to decorate the check with holly or Christmas bells so it will carry some of the spirit of the season but be very sure that you deduct de-duct every known tax for the Federal Government and make your records very clear so we can figure out the taxes we pay. It is said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. We hope all our employees feel very cheerful about giving to the Federal Fed-eral Government. We noticed by the papers that the Federal Bureaucrats Bur-eaucrats just bought 66,000 tons of prunes to keep the price up." That final touch about the "prunes" especially intrigued me. But, seriously, isn't it a sad state of affairs when a boss doing do-ing his darndest to be a good fellowAvilh his hired help, gets his cars pinned back by an officious offi-cious bureaucrat who knows little and cares less about the spirit of Christmas. |