Valdez daily prospector., 1918-01-24
PAY YOUR TAX
 OR BE BOOKED
Uncle Sam Now Preparing to List Names of All Persons Drawing
 $500 or Over

the treasury department is now com piling as the basis of it's machinery for tax collection?
 If you received $500 or more this year in wages. salary. interest. divi- dends. rents. or profits on specula- tion, your name will be there. And what is more. along with your name will be an exact record of the amounts you received from each of these sources
 When William the Conqueror took control of England he found nearly all his unwilling subjects lodging their taxes in scandolous fashion. So in 1885 he set about making a com plete list of all land and other prop erty-holders in his kingdom, with a record of everything they possessed. This great record the British appro- priately called the "Doomsday Book" because they knew it spelled doom for the tax dodgers.
 Uncle Sam is now building up his own "Doomsday Book" so as to end evasion of federal taxation, rarticu larly income and inheritance taxes. When completed it will be a marvel ously exact record of the financial condition of every taxable person and corporation in the United States. It will be sure trap for the people who try to dodge their war taxes.
 In the last revenue bill there are two sections, 1919 and 1911. which most people never heard of. These sections provide the material for Un- cle Sans "Doomsday Book" Every corporation is required, on demand of the treasury department, to furnish a complete list of all it's stockholders with names. addresses. number of shares held and amount of dividends paid. Every broker is required to file with the treasury list of all transactions for customers. whether speculative or for investment. show ing the amounts of their profits or losses--not only stock speculation, but dealings in grain and cotton fu- lures, and all other kinds of trans actions.
 Furthermore-all persons. corpora tions. and partnerships. including lessees. trustees. receivers and em- ployers, are required to make com plete return of all amounts of $500 or more paid during the year in sal aries, wages. interest. rent prem iums. annuities or any other form of compensation to persons. corporations or partnerships. In the case of inter- est on bonds. mortgages. etc. re- turn is required regardless of the amount
 This means that every corporation must furnish the government with complete list of all employees who re- ceive in wages or salaries $500 a year or more.
 As these returns come in they are card indexed. with a card for every person whose name appears.
 All amounts person receives from all sources are brought together in one place.
 Thus, for John Doe. there may be half a dozen cards-one showing that he received $40OO salary from the P. D. 0. Corporation: another showing he owns some steel stock which paid 5000 dividends last year; another showing he owns land for which he received $500 rent; another showing he dabbled in stocks last year with Skinnem & Soakem. brokers. and cleaned up $500 in copper; and an other showing he received $12O0 roy alty on a patent.
 When John Doe goes to make up his income tax return this year he may want to forget some of the items. He may think. Well, nobody knows about that little flyer in coppers. I guess I will leave that out. Nobody will be any wiser. and just look how much tax have to pay without that. Surely I am doing my snare of paying for the war"
 But Uncle Sam will know! He may not know within six months or a year, because the filing and index ing of the millions of cards is a colossal task. But he is going to fin- ish that job sooner or later. Then 8 clerk will take John Does sworn tax return, go to the card file and get put all the cards that show pay ments to John Doe. He will compare these with the tax return and find that John left out that $500 profit :. tc rJa voro~f