Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-12

of 81 900 from each of three companies.
and an income of 5000 from a fourth cor
poration, he can claim his full exemption
from the one corporation and allow the
three to pay the tax in full and the fourth
only on the 5000 above the exemption.
The internal revenue bureau vii. have
most elaborate checking system by
which it can trace most of the people sub
ject to income taxation. First. it VII
have national card index of all the peo-
pie who enjoy annual incomes in excess
of 5000. This Will be built up from
many sources. In the first place there
will be the list of income receivers from
all corporations. joint stock companies
and others who must advise the govern
ment as to the names and addresses of all
those enjoying taxable incomes. This will
give clue to perhaps two-thirds of the
people likely to have taxable incomes
Then there are the people who are large
realty owners. AS their deeds are on rec
ord, and their property listed upon the
tax books of the cities and counties IN
which the property is located, the internal
revenue collectors can check them up.
They can also ascertain who collects
the rents, who handles the interest &C
counts and who looks after the other
affairs of large property holders and
mortgage holders. Wherever possible
these people will be asked to remit the
income tax directly to the Internal
revenue collector and they will be
under a heavy penalty to make such
returns as will keep the Treasury De-
partment advised as to the people with
whom they deal who are liable to in
come taxation. and as to the amounts
of their incomes derived through
The determination of the trainers of
the proposed law will tend to make it
difficult for
Difficult for Rich rich men to
to Escape the Tax. taxes since
most of their holdings are in such
shape that the Treasury Department
can keep tab upon them and check up
the income returns of an individual
with the returns from these .other
sources Where the two sets of re-
turns agree there will be no further
trouble. but the man whose individual
return is lower than the returns made
for him will have a rather unpleasant
chance to explain.
In this respect the law undoubtedly
will prove an aid in determining just
what are the profits of big corporations
and wealthy individuals. Just as the
interstate commerce commission has
compelled the railroads to keep rec
ords that show exactly what are the
profits of their operations, and as the
corporation tax law requires corpora
tions to show their actual incomes, so
will the individual have to give in his
income This probably will prove OF
much value for statistical purposes.
There will be no undue inquisitorial
proceedings in the collection of the in
come tax, if the present policy with
reference to the corporation tax is
continued The corporations are given
to understand that if they come for
ward and try to meet the law they
have nothing to fear from its opera
ton. but that If they try to get around
it there will be an investigation that
will investigate.
The returns of every corporation. stock
company and individual subject to the
tax will be carefully checked up, one fea-
ture with another an dalso with other
information in hand. and if there is no
evidence of any tax-dOdging willful or
unintentional. that will about end the
matter.