The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-02-03
Paving Income Tax.


We don t pay much income tax, but
we do pay the tax that is assessed
against us-that is, some of us do
some of us wish that our statement to
the income tax collector would warrant
the treasurer issuing to us a receipt
with much larger figures on the mar
gin. Most of US believe that we have
dealt with the income assessor in all
fairness and that we have turned into
him every cent of income that we
could not find, by hook or crook, way
to charge off in exemptions. Either
self-respect or fear of the dire pro-
cesses of the law compels the most of
us to walk right up to the wicket and
pay the tax. We may think that it is
an obnoxious tax; that it is being I'M
fairly collected; that lot of people
are escaping it, and all that, but after
all the mouthings and chickering's are
all over we pay-that is, as said be-
foremost of us. There seems to be
in Kenosha city, and county, too, a
favored class who escape the payment
of the tax. They have escaped it for
years, and there is every reason to
believe that they will go on escaping
it. They seem to be summons and com
plant proof. They have property,
drive automobiles, put their arms up
on the mahogany right regularly and
wear diamonds, but in their pockets
they carry no income tax receipts. We
have read the law and know that it is
possible for the officials Of the county
to get out and sell the coat off their
backs If necessary to collect this tax,
and yet they ramble along in their
automobiles, their diamonds rejecting
the bright sunshine and laugh at the
tax collector. Most people do not care
to get into this class, but they want
the class abolished. They want fair
play. They do not care how much an
income tax may be assessed against a
man, be it two cents or a hundred
thousand dollars-they believe that it
is up to him to pay it. With the virtue
that comes of pocket with an income
tax receipt for lining, these people
themselves become the most ardent
supporters Of the law that provides for
the collection, if not the asserting of
the income tax.
Certain as death and taxes does not
apply to some people. They either
move before the collector 8 claim, or
they studiously ignore his demands for
cash until their names are slowed
away on the list of delinquent in
come taxes" Once on that list, they
seem to be forgotten. Some times to
collect the city taxes the furniture of
people is seized. The man who owes
income tax has no such thrill in his
life. All we want to know is: "Why
not9o The dollars of one man are just
as good to him as they are to the state
and he feels that the dollars of the
other man are no more exempt when
the state comes for its full pound of
flesh. Year after year a lot Of Ken
osha people have paid the income tax
knowing when they paid it that lot
of others just as able to pay were
going to escape the collector. Is it
going to be the same again this years
The County Board has ordered the
officials of the county to use every pro-
cess Of the law to collect the delin-
quent taxes. This means the taxes
that these fellows have 1auohAd into
the discard for years, as well as those
they are going TO decline to pay this
year. We have paid, now we want the
other fellow to do the same. It ism It
in any way a question Of the amount,
it's a question cf fair treatment. IF
the income tax can be collected from
one man it can be from another. Now
let's see every dollar of it paid.