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Show Many Tax Laws Suggested To Get 'Nervous Dollars' Compulsory Savings, Personal Excess Income In-come Tax, Spending Levy Found Unpopular Unpopu-lar or Unwieldy; Orthodox Bill Seen. By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. ' I I .w t YOUR TAX- AND BOND-DOLLAR HOW THE GOVERNMENT SPENDS IT (First Half o 1943 09 munition!. SJJfjjJ 'Automotive vehicles and- equipment, clolhinq and personal equipment i dnd other expenses. Pay, subsistence, travel for armed forces and civilians, agricultural commodities for. export and miscellaneous expenses. Dofo-WPft WNU Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C. As far back as biblical days, the tax collector was an unpopular person. per-son. Today you don't see the tax collector col-lector but you know who writes the tax laws and the folks who do (congress) (con-gress) lead a most unhappy life, especially in an election year such as we are approaching. The complicated problem they face can be simply stated think it over and figure out what you would do if you had to write a tax law. The problem is this: how to collect the most dollars and lose the least votes. Soak the rich? Well, they have the money and it hurts them the least, but unfortunately there are not enough of them to soak. It is too bad because they are so few in number that their votes don't matter mat-ter so much. (Only 46,949 people or approximately one eight-hundredth of those with incomes earn over $10,-000 $10,-000 a year.) Tax the rest? That will bring In the biggest total but they are the ones with the votes. The President says we need 106 billion dollars to run the war this year. The treasury says that out of every dollar collected, 90 cents goes to pay the war bills. So there have been a number of schemes concocted which are aimed at getting the nervous dollars, the ones most likely to create inflation. Presumably they are the dollars that belong to the people who are now getting a lot more money than they did before the war. It would be just to take the "excess profits" to pay for the war especially because the people who are getting a lot more than they are used to are the ones who spend most freely. So compulsory savings has been snggested. That is, making Uncle Sam collect a part of everybody's income, which would he returned after the war. Then there Is a scheme to tax spending. In other words, tax the dollars which are spent on extras, dollars that get back into circulation and push np the inflation spiral. Not the dollars that go into homes or life insurance or paying old debts, but the dollars that romp off for more clothes than yon need to wear, more food and drink than you need to absorb, more gadgets than you ought to get along with in wartime. Then there is another tax the personal excess income tax. That is a tax on the amount of money that you are receiving now that you weren't receiving before the war. Lacking Popularity None of these methods is popular. There is a sentimental objection to compulsory savings. It smacks, according ac-cording to its opponents, too much of totalitarianism, of an interference interfer-ence with the individual's personal habits. The President is opposed to it and his wife agrees with, him the treasury is opposed to it. The spending tax is said to be too complicated and likewise appears to be unpopular with the treasury. Then there is this personal excess income tax of which you will soon be hearing more. The chief objection objec-tion to that tax seems to be that it is too hard to work out; that it is too hard to make it just and fair. Even the Nazis who tried it gave it up after about a year's triaL When the personal excess Income tax comes up, you will hear many arguments against it. Like many of these other "unorthodox" methods, it requires the establishment of what is called a "base period" to establish estab-lish a comparison. That is, some period of time during which the amount earned by the individual is taken as a base. Then what he is making now is compared with that "base" and the difference taxed. But that is a pretty hard thing to work out because so many adjustments adjust-ments would have to be made for special cases that the government would never be able to examine each case and pass on it fairly. Take the young doctor. The year before the war, he may have been graduated from medical school. Probably he had little or no income then. Then he begins to practice and in wartime, doctors are in demand. de-mand. He may have made a fair income this year. Would it be fair to tax the "excess" if it were the difference dif-ference between this year's earning and the "base period" when he was earning nothing at all? Too Many Inequities Then there are many men who are getting more money now because be-cause they work longer hours or have received just and deserved promotions pro-motions all these things immediately immedi-ately come into the picture when you begin to straighten out the inequities, inequi-ties, when you really try to tax a just percentage of a man's income. And so the predictions which are being made in Washington now are that the next tax bill will be a pretty "orthodox" affair, it will simply have about the same kind of exemptions, exemp-tions, a little higher percentage tax, and will be rushed through at the last minute after as many members of congress have objected to the clauses which they think will be unpopular un-popular with their constituents. The government needs the money and needs it quickly. The people don't want to be taxed any more than can be helped and the congressmen will lean over backwards trying to please the people. Meanwhile, the treasury tells us that most of the money which is being be-ing earned due to the great increase in-crease in production caused by the war is going to people whose incomes in-comes are less than $5,000 a year seven-eighths of it. So at least seven-eighths seven-eighths of the taxes ought to come from that group. |
