The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-20

the amounts in Items 34, 60 and 69 as net losses from wear and tear. Obsoles- cence and depletion charged off (See K 9 on Page 8 of Instruct.ons) before enter ing total in Item 9i, Schedule o. It's perfectly simple,
 "L. F.-Dont worry about your 1919 tax. You may not have any income"
 The most complicated of all computa tions required under the federal act and under this state bill 's that to arrive at the excess profits tax. What invested capital includes or Goes not include would furnish material for several books and until the amount of invested capital is determined the report is not even started. For 1917 all federal tax payers whose income exceeded certain amounts had to make these computa- tions. For 1918 the teceral act limited this work to corporations. Under the proposed state bill all taxpayers must do this. Today therv are pending be- fore the United States treasury depart ment hundreds of uncecided cases in- volving disputes as to what is and is not income and what is ana is not invested capital Do you, MT. Business Man, MT. Professional Man, MT. Farmer and MT Worlxingman, desire a duplication of all this in the state of Alabama?
 There has been no attempt in this ar ticle to enter into any technical discus sion of the various provisions of this revenue bill l have tried, far as possible, to give in most general way to the people who must pay this tax in the state of Alabama an idea of what i. means to each of them.
 The governor has set his hand to the wheel to get the state out of debt, and to provide money not only to do this, but to meet the states bills with cash payment when they Tall due. Under this bill, which is now before the legis- lature, all owners of real and personal property are required to pay taxes only on the basis of 60 per cent of the as- sessed valuation of such property. The state tax authorities in Montgomery have definite and exact figures of what this assessed value was for last year.
 These values are growing every year. It is about a two-minute cal culation to arrive at the amount of additional revenue to the state by add ing per cent, 10 per cent or 15 per cent to this 60 per cent figure Would you prefer each year to make out ad- ditional tax returns and to pay an in come tax and excess profits tax; would you, citizens of counties whose main resources are coal and minerals in the ground. prefer to have the people who have, developed those resources pay the cents a ton coal and cents 
 man, who are directly taxed under the license tax schedule in this bill pre- fer to pay these taxes: CT would you all prefer that the owners of real and personal property pay a tax on some thing nearer 100 per cent of the as sessed valuation of their property (and own and pay taxes on real and per sonal property), in order that the gov ernor may get the state out of debt and keep it out of debt?
 THRESHOLD OF DEVELOPMENT
 This state is at the threshold of tremendous development in its natural resources. We have not, in Alabama, all the money necessary to make, this development as great as it should be. We are all delighted to pick up a paper and read that Someone has come from outside the state and invested $1,G00, 900 in some enterprise in our county which will mean an increase in popu- lation and more prosperity Do you think that anyone will do this if the tax burden for the next four yeats in cludes the excess profits tax and the Income tax and these other special taxes? Anyone can pick out one form of taxation covered by this bill and say that it places no particularly heavy burden on the taxpayer; but before our representatives in the Legislature vote on this bill let us think about the ag- gregate burden that results from the multiplication of these different forms of taxation.
 As this is written, there is no doubt in my mind that it will be criticised on the idea that the writer has an ul- terior motive. or is writing with the idea of protecting some special inter est Nothing of this kind is<in my mind in writing this. I am doing it merely because for the last nine years I have endeavored to make a careful study of federal and state taxation and during that time had occasion to see in practice the results particularly of income and excess profits taxation and special and unusual taxes, not only by the federal government. but by various states. and I firmly believe that the people of Alabama, if they allow their legislature to adopt this bill. should do so only with their eyes open. and my hope is that in a gem eral way I will accomplish the pur- pose of telling you what this bill means to you.
 A discussion with any one taxpayer would make it a simple matter to point out the effect of the provisions of this bill on his individual situa- ton, but in this sort of article it is