The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-05-03
ROPER SUGGESTS
 SIMPLER LAWS
Former Commissioner Sees Needless Complexities in
 Present Legislation.

Atlantic City, May 3.-An efficient | revenue law should be able to most | three tests. CD Effectfveness in yield | ing the money required; CD ceIerity | and economy in administration; (3) l convenient and economical observ- | ance by the tax-paying public. These 1
 three tests were applied to our Fed l
 era1 revenue system by Daniel c. |
 Roper. ex-commissioner of internal 1 revenue, in an address before the Ma 1
 tiona1 Chamber of Commerce.
 With respect to the first test he |
 said:
 ''The war revenue laws have yield 1
 ed up to this time the amounts of
 money they were designed to produce. The collections in the last two and
 one-half years amount to more than eleven billion dollars, or about as much as was collected in the fifty eight years of the previous entire his tory of the Bureau of Internal Rev
 enue. This amount is in excess of | the estimated yield from the war
 laws by several hundred millions In
 respect to revenue therefore, they
 have been successful laws.
 "In the second requirement., that of celerity and economy of administra- | ton to the taxpayers, they have not l been so satisfactory. There is much
 to be said against them that were 1 better left unsaid. It has been | through, the splendid cooperation of all the business interests of our country and the herculean efforts and | ceaseless energy of the income tax
 until that a, fair measure of celerity l and success was obtained in launch 1 ing the administration of the war
 revenue laws and in collecting the 1 amounts of money required to meet l the scheduled government obligations.
 ''It is, however, with respect to the l point of convenience and cost of ob- | servance that the average tax payer may protest with greatest propriety | and justification. Statistics are not
 available, but I have no hesitancy in expressing opinion that the expense to the tax payers of complying with | the present law is much greater than | the cost to the Government of ad- | miniStering the internal revenue laws. The Congress appropriated last year | approximately $25, 100000 for the ad- 1 ministration of the Internal Revenue l Bureau. The money paid out di- i rectly by tax payers in their endeavor
 to comply with the law last year l amounted in my opinion to no less
 than $10o, 900, 900.
 'Not only are thousands of men
 
 this burden of the extraordinary
 problem of reconstruction, further
 burdened by the brain Tagging intri-
 cacies of invested capital and the
 differentiation between what is in
 come and what is not what may and
 what may not be deductible, etc., but in the final analysis they are put
 to the necessity of employing law yers, accountants and engineers at
 much expense to calculate tax iabil- II ity. They must employ extra clerical help, install and maintain special re-
 cords, and in many instances over haul entire systems and methods Of accounting, which may be entirely
 adequate for ordinary business pur- poses, but which do not enable facile { compliance with the tax laws.
 'I have been appalled, during the last two years by the amount of brain power and energy that have been diverted from normal avenues
 of production to the activities incl dent to compliance with the tax laws. A great deal of the best brains and ability in the United States is devoted ; to the work of attempting to solve Z the insolub1e problem how to make | profits that are not taxable, not to 1 mention the less 1audable and more a rarely encountered attempts to con- sl cea1 taxable income. Men are heard a to boast of losses sustained that may a be deducted but lament gains thai s are unavoidable and on which tax s must be paid.
 Continuing, MT. Roper asserted that a s'experience has demonstrated the de S | sirability of thoroughly revising the ] excess profits law as quickly as pos s sible and of enacting new legislation T which will produce needed revenue 1 without such deterring effects upor s industry and thrift and without sucf S | delays in getting the money which i owing to the government into the treasury and that which is overpait q back to the taxpayer"
 M Relative to the rapidity of payins 5s the war debt, Mr. Roper stated tha A with a League of Nations for the en 3 couragement of future peace WI e should be able to give thereby t 4 future generations a quid pro quo fo @ the money spent for the war and WI 53 could with propriety then extend tn s tax burden further into the future zs I also have the conviction that thi A could be accomplished by Congres sa authorizing the return annually fo A five years of bonds to run, say, lift, s years in the amount Of one-thlrd o g the taxes to all individual and cor < poration taxpayers whose taxe 8 amount to as much as $50 in ss single year. The effect of this woul sa be to reduce immediate taxes by 3 la Is per cent, foster savings habits 2 encourage industry and transfer t .s the next generation only a fair pro # portion of the war tax burden
 q No less important than revenue S expenditure, and in this connection s the speaker declared for a "control x ling budget system that will reduc RI and hold in check extravaganza a M every point We must cease both a E individuals and as a nation to searcl N for places to spend money and seel ya with as great diligence ways of cur Fsl tailing our expenditures and Twin S within our means. It is highly de A sirab1e that we transform our na sS tional operations and expenditures t S a peace basis. The delay in accom- E plishing- this is chargeable solely t
 the failure of the United States Sen M ate to confirm the peace treaty an A enable the President to put the coun E try on a constructive peace basis an l al