Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-05
INTERNAL REVENUE,
BEER TAX IN MONTANA. T1TAu
AND IDAHO LAST YEAR
WAS LARGE.

The beer drinkers of Montana, Utah
and Idaho, the three states comprised
in the internal revenue distrist thai
has it's headquarters in Helena, during
the past year helped the government
along in the collection of revenues at a
surprising rate, says the Herald. Ac-
cording to the figures available at the
office of Collector Charles NJ. Webster,
h Internal revenue receipts from beer
for 1899 were almost one-half of the en-
tire receipts of his Office for those three
states. The receipts for the year showed
a large increase over those of 1898. This
is accounted for by the fact that the in
creased tax on beer. the tax on docu-
nlentary proprietary stamps inc other
items in the war revenue tax went into
effect on July /, 1898. so that 1898 got the
benefit of but one-half a year of the in
creased evenue.
The total revenue for the district from
the special a. Oicenses), cigars and to-
baccos, assessments for violations of the
law, documentary and proprietary
stamps, oleolnargerine and other articles
that pay internal revenue tax for
the year 1899 amounted to 1854, SS9. OF.
This is an increase of about $3.50, 900 over
the same receipts for 1898.
The receipts during the past year by
months were: January, $33. 1885,: Febru-
airy, $50. 1911. "A; March, SAG, 67O.41; April,
$51. 504. 20; June. $40, 1885, 90; July, $685.
603. 10; August, $50, 481. IA; September, $751;
1905; October. $47, 229. S2: November, $751;
1882: December, SAT, 1S2.47; total, 1884,
8S9.O7.
OF this large sum the beer tax contrib
uted 1928, 957. 10, the largest amount de-
rived from any single item. The next
single item of revenue was the docu-
mentary stamp tax.
AS beer paid the largest amount of rev.
enue the receipts from that source by
months are given: January, $14, 1921. 81;
February. SIG. 1880; March. $21, 7s1. 81;
April. So. $780, 20; May, s29, 351. 90; June,
$34. 640.5S July, s43,912.73: August, $780,
360. 01: September. $32. 2S6. Is; October, $24,-
107. 66; November, $22. 996. Is; December,
$25. 941 .43; total, 1923, 957. 79.
"The receipts from the beer tax
amounts to more than I had antici-
pated.' said Collector Webster. "You
see it was about one-half. 1t may seem
odd, but it is nevertheless a fact that the
amount of beer stamps sold for an 'indi-
vidual month is a sort of a gauge of the
The largest sales are naturally,
in the summer OF late spring months.
When the sale of stamps in one of those
months falls off we know without con-
sulting the weather records that the
was cool and disagreeable.'
As the reports of the office by years
are made out at the end Of the fiscal
year-June 30-other comparisons of
sales are obtained without detail work.
taking them from the records. The re-
port of the collector at the end Of the
last fiscal year showed thai during the
year ending June 80 the receipts Of the
Office had increased in round numbers
over those of the previous year $3.50. 0O0.
As Montana pays about 65 per cent of
the internal revenue receipts from the
three states, it is evident that this state
nay the war tax nuite liberallv
in the war of beer drinking.