The Washington herald., 1913-10-23
|KVOTTY POINTS
in Income TAX
Many Problems Pertaining to
Its Operation Must Be ).
Solved.
EXPERTS ARE PUZZLED
Mass Of Legal Verbiase 10 Be Un-
rsveIed BY Secretary Of Treasury
and the Attorney General.
EXPERTS ARE PUZZLED
By I. A. FLEMING.

\ II you are married man. living will
your wife. and your salary and Income
from other sources do not exceed 400
q year. yon need not worry about dollar
being taken out of your pay on the first
/ OF November or any payday thereafter
But our nabobs, our Senators and Rep
resentatives IN Congress, our bank presi-
dents who draw down many thousands
IN excess OF the limit for exemption. will
find their pay envelopes or checks OF
cash over the counter or credits on their
bank books clipped by the regular tax
of ! per cent on excess up to $4,000
Beyond that they will have to pay q
higher percentage.
Every bank in Washington, eSsry real
estate dealer. every trust company, Is
worrying over the Interpretation TO be
placed on the various provisions of the
law. which, TO the average man. are as
Greek or Latin. and viii remain so until
after the Commissioner OF Internal Rev
enue, aided and abetted by the Secretary
of the Treasury and the bead OF the
Department Of Justice shah interpret the
classical language and unravel the legal
verbiage of the great and powerful solons
who drew up. amended and improved this
measure.
Attorneys at Sea.
Expert attorneys, WnosW Dusiness ~ u
to be on the most cordial terms with legal
phraseology, admit that they are at sea:
that the Interpretation they place on this
or that paragraph is 50 and 50. and
another equally bright legal expert win
declare that II is the reverse.
Experts in the Internal Revenue Bu-
reau since October 13, when the measure
was passed, barely have been able TO
snatch a little sleep now and then. and
are becoming bow-legged and knock
kneed and sore-backsd and addle-headed
working over the knots.
Bankers are constantly supplying fresh
problems, and when these are answered
the usual formula Is: Eyes. but in the
event OF this and that your Interpretation
could hardly stand this section Of the
law" Back go the tax experts and repeat
sd lib until they are nearly Wild over the
problem.
In due time the interpretations viii be
completed, they will be given Secretary
McAdoo's and Attorney General McRey-
nolds' Official 20. X" and then they viii
be put in force. but until some one de-
cides trat he will go TO the Supreme Court
bench. then, and not until then, will the
full details be known.
VIII Find Incomes Cut.
Many expatriated Americans living in
Europe on incomes from American invest
ments will find their incomes cut down
and they will howl Many Americans
with foreign investments will take their
interest and dividend checks to American
bankers and ask for cash, and the bank
ers viii say: Certainly, minus the In
come tax, which We must deduct
And when a man presents a batch Of
coupons November or January l for
payment and the income tax is deducted
by the banker. the owner Of the coupons
may come back this way:
What right have you TO presuppose
that am going through this entire year
in the present financial condition? Mis-
fortune might catch up with me. at the
end of the year the income that we now
show might be a miserable remnant. and
I might be seriously In debt"
But the banker will be Indifferent.
II might be that the salary or wage
oven 1900 would be entirely wiped out
before the year and the income would
not reach the minimum limit upon which
the tax Is demanded.
One thing Is certain, Uncle Samuel win
nave many places to fill, for he Is going
10 collect from those Of the 900oo,ooo peo-
pie enjoying incomes of over 1900 IL mar
ried. or $500 IL single