Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-03-15
Income TAX
WORRIES MANY
Treasury Department Flood
ed With Letters of
Inquiry.
IS TANGLED AFFAIR
Perjury Is Charged to Anyone Sending
in False Report Concern.
ing Income.
BY Sidney Espey.

washington March 14.-Worse than
the tabled riddle of the Sphinx, more
tangled than the Gordian knot, the
intricacies of the income tax have be-
fuddled financial brains in all sec
tons of the country and the Treasury
Department is practically swamped
by the flood of letters which daily
pour in to inquire concerning some Of
the more abstruse points of the tax.
Not that all the points of the law are
not abstruse-but some of them are
more so than others.
To the layman who does not have
to pay the income tax the fact that
his richer brethren have to contribute
one per cent of their incomes above
So, 900 Cor $4,000 if they are married
and living with their wives) to the
support of the government does not
, seem to be so intricate. But once a
man tries to compute his actual in
come the difficulties present them
| selves in a never-ending row.
| To the professional man who lives
on steady salary there is not much
trouble, but to the lawyer who must
make returns of the fees he has col
lected, to the doctor who must in
form the government of the bills
which have been paid him, to the mer-
chant who must take into account a
thousand-an-one different items in
computing his profit for the year, the
task is an appalling one, complicated
by the fact that the man who makes
a false return of his income is liable
to be imprisoned for perjury.
But there is another class OF bust
ness man for whom it is even more
difficult to determine exact income
and the precise amount of the tax
which he must pay to the government
the farmer.
Realizing the obstacles in the patti
of the tiller of the soil who is for
tunate enough to make over $4,000 6
wear. for most farmers are married,
recently made inquiries at the Treas
ury Department concerning this class
of income tax and found out num-
Der of interesting things concerning
it.
In arriving at his net income, was
told, the farmer should start with his
gross income, only the former being
taxable, however. His gross income
would consist of all items which
would rebound to lis personal profit
particularly all receipts from the sale
of products of every description from
the farm. This would include al
money received from produces anc
animals sold and for the wool and the
hides of animals slaughtered, if the
latter are sold; but the farmer may
deduct from these items the amount
actually paid as purchase money fol
the animals sold or slaughtered dur
ing the year. When animals raised
by the owner are sold or slaughtered
however, their value should not be sc
deducted.
From the gross income there should
be deducted amounts Of money actual
ly paid as expenses for operating thu
farm and producing the farm prod
ucts, live stock, etc. This would in
clude farm labor, and supplies tina
are necessary to carry on the bust
ness and are not investments that rep
resent principle. Expenses for repairs
on farm property may also be deduct
ed, provided the amount taken Of
does not exceed the amount actual!
spent for such repairs during thu
year for which the return is made
The cost of replacing tools and ma
chinery may also be deducted to thu
extent that the cost Of the new ar