River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-06-24
TAX AMENDMENT
READY THURSDAY
TAFT WILL SUPERVISE FINISH
ING TOUCHES ON 2 PER CENT
LEVY PLAN.
CONFERENCE AT WHITE HOUSE
Wickersham-Root Draft to BE Scrutin
ICED by observation-disclosures at
White House Will Dispose OF
Pending Question.

Washington, June e. President
Taft will personally supervise putting
the finishing touches upon the pro-
posed amendment to the tariff bill
providing for the imposition of two
per cent tax upon the net earnings Of
corporations.
This will be done at conference at
the White House today.
There will be present Attorney
General Wickersham and Senator
Root, who are drafting the amend
ment, Secretary of State Knox and
Senators Aldrich, Burrows, Penrose,
Hale, Cullom, Lodge, McCumber,
Smoot and Flint; constituting the Re-
publican membership of the finance
committee. The draft prepared by
Messrs. Wickersham and Root will be
discussed at the conference.
To Be Ready Thursday.
Such changes as are agreed upon
will be made by the attorney general
on Wednesday and it is expected the
perfected amendments will be ready
for introduction in the senate on
Thursday.
The attorney general and Mr.. Root
had long session at the capitol yes
terday and reached an agreement on
practically every feature of the cor
poration tax plan.
The portion which is giving them
the greatest trouble relates to the
government control of corporations
necessary to carry the law into sue
cessful operation.
There has been no little opposition
to Subjecting the corporations to the
amount of publicity that will be re-
CURED for the enforcement of the law
and to prevent manipulations of
stocks and bonds for the purposes of
evasion.
Members of the finance committee
as we'll as Mr.. Root and Mr.. Wicker
sham agree with President Taft that
such publicity must be given and that
without it the corporation tax law
would be failure.
This feature, it was said yesterday,
certainly will be incorporated in the
amendment. The authors of the draft
however, are experiencing difficulty
in finding an effective way of reach
ing the situation.
Among the details of the bill de-
termined are that the tax to be levied
will be collected from all corpora
fions. All banks will come within the
range of the tax bill reductions which
will be allowed national banks to the
amount OF taxes paid upon their circu-
latiOn.
An important provision to- be in
cluded in the bill is a definition of net
earnings.
This will follow as nearly as posi-
BILE the definition of the earnings col
lected in the interstate commerce act
relating to railroad corporations.
Taft Is Optimistic.
President Taft is decidedly optimis-
tic over the outlook for his corpora
tion tax, but a number of senators
who called at the White House yes
terday declared that the proposition
would keep the senate in session until
long past August 1.
Senator Elkins was one of the pres
1OSAC CdAlSLS anu uS u0CIdIOu IudI
he and a number of other senators
would have some remarks to make in
the senate when the new scheme of
taxation is under consideration.
The West Virginia senator believes
that all corporations would attempt
in some manner to avoid payment of
the tax. Additional salaries and all
manner of expenditures would be re-
sorted to, he thinks.
President Taft, on the other hand,
does not believe that a two per cent
tax on net earnings is heavy enough
to make any of the larger corporations
resort to evasive measures. AS to
bonds it is possible, the president
feels, to provide limit for the issu-
ance of such securities, based upon
the capital stock that will prevent
corporations from transferring all of
their securities into bonds, the inter-
est on which always is paid from
gross earnings. There seems to be
no way in which the bond-holder can
be reached under the new tax except
by double taxation on the corporation
itself, which is not contemplated.
Some provision may be made as to
the issuance of bonds in the future
to provide that the interest shall be
paid only from net earnings.