The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-27

be picked out and the best examin-
ers on the force put to work conduct
ing dragnet investigation, which viii
serve as an example to the whole
country, while other examiners are
looking up individuals scattered
throughout the country.
Such dragnet investigations will not
only show exactly how much fraud
and evasion there is. but will serve to
scare out of their holes the tax dodg-
ers who are waiting in apparent Sc
curity for the tax collector to come
around.
Third, the secretary must see to it
that the bureau enforces all penalties
rigidly and prosecutes every case of
genuine attempt to defraud. This is
not the case now. The internal reve-
nue. bureau needs to grow some teeth
and use them in the enforcement of
the income tax law. The minimum
penalty prescribed by law for failure
to file returns on time is $40, but this
penalty is being regularly compro-
missed at SIS.
Why is this compromise" being
made?
Why is it that, in the majority of
cases, when the examiners find that
the deductions have been grossly over
stated, the bureau does not assess the
100 per cent penalty but simply col
lects the additional taxes which are
due?
Why. in spite of the many palpable
frauds which have been unearthed by
the revenue agents, has the bureau
taken practically no steps to bring
about criminal prosecutions?
This condition of apathy is taking
the heart out of many of the most
competent and Jealous agents in the
department. After they have worked
with great acumen to dig out and YER
ify the details of an attempted fraud,
it gives them little incentive to see the
whole case closed by the assessment
simply of the taxes which were due
in the first place!
Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo
probably does not know that this is
the fact. But if he will spend a day
in having a frank talk with the rev.
enue agents who are on the job in
any one of the big offices, he will learn
much that will open his eyes.
Tip for Sec. McAdoo of Treasury.
Fourth, the secretary of the treasury
in his scheme of reorganization must
provide for putting men with brains
directly in charge of the assessment
and collection of the tax and give them
an opportunity to work.
The bureau should have three or
four first class men who would be
freed absolutely from routine duties
and given every opportunity to rake
the tax collecting system over from
top to bottom, to devise and develop
of information, to teach the
how to do their work and how to de-
tect frauds.
Last, but not least, the bureau needs
the time and the force to find out ac-
curately and fully the results of the
two years of income taxation. Fully
half the questions 1 asked about the
tax could not be answered because the
figures have never been compiled. No
body knows now how much the tax
for 1913 or for 1914 has yielded, be-
cause the data on collections apply
to the fiscal year in which the tax was
taken in and not to the year in which
1t was due. Nobody knows very much
more about the results of the tax than
the inaccurate and practically value
less tables published in the commits
sioner of internal revenues report!
All the information in the returns
could be tabulated for $4,000 and
would be absolutely invaluable not
only as the best possible index of our
national economic condition, but sim
ply as revealing the points at which
the income tax is being lodged.
But no matter how much improve
ment in administrative detail NAV be
made, the increase in income tax WELD
viii be insignificant The reforms
which are necessary to insure the col
lection of the tax are fundamental and
affect the central policies which con
trolls its administration.
Publicity Should Be the Slogan.
AT present the dominant idea in the
enforcement of the act is secrecy. no
vital results will be secured until nuh-
llclty is made the slogan.
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