Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1916-07-24
Auditor Declares Millions:of
Intangibles Are in
Hiding
WILL FORCE PAYMENT
Announces More Heroic Measures
will Be Provided if Inspectors Fail
in Efforts - -t.tt--

90 Moore does not thlnk much "
+ho returns so far made by the eH'
aminers of records of voluntary
reports made by taxpayers who havt :,
failed to return omitted property anu
thus escape the penalties for such
failure up to August ! OF tins year
He declares that. the returns so 1ar
made are a mere bagatelle, are 1ar-
cical and that people are stili as
nosed to dodge taxes and hope 10
succeed in avoiding just payments
Mr.. Moore also made it exceedlng-
" plain that the state is just as de-
termined to compel settlements as at
any time, and that if there is failure
by the present method others WIZ oe
devised which will be more raaical
and drastic and that no person VIII
be allowed to escape payment OF a
,eo;t;mate share of the burdens Oh
taxation. Mr.. Moore said;
81 read with interest the puDiiea.
tions regarding voluntary returns OF
intangibles, and do not regard II
IN any sense as q suhstatial re-
sponse by the taxpayers to the op-
portunity afforded them by the gen.
eral assembly" declared MIR. moore
"The period, of omission covers tWel'e
years, and I believe that there are
many millions. in values which nave
not been assessed in those wears.
aVoluntary returns so far made are
bapat.lle, and the large amount
returned in the Newport News circuit
is practically the return Of one tax
naver. 1 had hoped that taxpayers
conscious of their omissions during
many of these years, if not all OF
them. would respond to the offer to
make voluntary returns, which, be-
lieye. should aggregate many millions
of dollars, but their failure. ey!denceo
INV returns sois far: filed, forces: the
commonwealth, through her taxing
officers, after August 1, 1876 and
thereafter to vigorously make inves-
tieations with respect to each and all
tax payers to make mandatory assess
ments.
s"Moreover, if the present system
nnder which the commonwealth Is
proceeding proves inadequate, the
state will provide special taxing otfl'
GERS for each city and county, who
will devote; their ;entire time too;;ascer
timing and assessing the omissions
during this period of years. And u
the asceatainment is not made I'm th'
lifetime of the owners of such pro
perty, it will sbe;s made against tn
estate of such person at his or ne
death. :;
CAT the last session the general as
sembly declared the policy OF tn
commonwealth to be that these omis
sions should be assessed for state pur
poses for every, year since 1902, an'
for local purpoes for every year since
1911. To the extent that taxpayer
have failed to make these rsturn
voluntarily, the burden upon the tax
ing officers has been increased, AM
while all these omissions cannot pos
sibly be assessed during this yea
= this work must be continued there
after until the: mandatory require
piled with in every county and cit
ment of the law shall have been com
of the commonwealth"
Christopher B. Garnett, OF tn
state tax board, gave; q ruling al
fecting the taxing laws and the mat
ter of who should return stocks fo
taxation. The question was aske
whether stocks which were pledged q
collateral should be taxed. Mr.. Gal
nett replied that such stocks wel
taxable and should be returned at ms