The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-30

lnuaIly special excise tax with respect to carry
/ Ing on doing business by such eorpeTafton
I" equivalent to one per centum upon the
entire net income over and above ffve thousand
dollars received by It from all sources during
the year" This is Just tho rate at which MI.
Rucker any other individual OF this State has
to pay on his income And the banks records
are required to be kept 90 that this income can
be readily determined, while the individuals
word must be relied upon solely. Perhaps the
fact that Mr.. Rucker did not know Of this In
come tax on banks caused him to think that
the banks not fully taxed.
Banks are not such big moneymakers as Mr.
Rucker would have believe they are. They
take an amount of capital and invest It. Then
with reasonable returns they are able to pay a
dividend and the balance Of their earnings. II
ANY. is reinvested as surplus. Quite frequently
banks have good SURPRISES, and on this account
they are looked upon having earning
capacities of enormous proportions when In
reality they have not been earning as large per
Icentum upon the capital invested as the average
business man, who makes away. very frequently
with his gains just as soon as they are realized
In the OF banks, Just small portion OF
the earnings is distributed among the share
holders for their personal use and the remainder
is retained in the regular channels OF business
las tangible evidence Of gain. II the average
business man were to allow himself to make
use of only very small part OF his annual
income, putting the remainder to work for him
la gain then he too would in the course of time
find himself earning big per centum on his
lorginal investment.
continue writing upon the tax question. for
more agitation of this subject is certainly just
lWnat we nee0, ana trust uHaL olneT Oh oui
people will discuss the different phases with him.
1t is peculiar, however, that MIR. Rucker should
have chosen to begin with the banks when there
are many other inequalities really existing in
our tax laws. in the discussion of which his time
would have been better spent. For instance, he
might have written upon the disastrous effects
Iof the tax levied upon money on deposit in the
banks throughout our State; how each year at
assessing time vast sums of money are with
drawn from the banks of the State to avoid
taxation and how the business interests suffer
so greatly this account We might say that
this is inevitable, but surely there ought to
be some method of taxation which would serve
to check this yearly migration of capital 1t
proves TO be great pullback to the business
interests of State each year
Then. furthermore, there is the question of
the proper assessing and taxing of real estate
Mr. Rucker surely believes that proper taxes
are not levied upon real estate The assessments
are far from equitable throughout the State, and
all of these matters will bear thoughtful dis
cusson.
Let all hope for and try to bring about in
legislative enactment such laws will furnish
our government proper revenue for the support
OF public institutions and particularly such
laws will require each taxpayer to pay his
Just proportion of this revenue. This is what
the banks working for.
Yours truly,
H. l. ELEY.
CORTLAND, Va, June g. 1918.