Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-06-02
HASKIN LETTER
Bv FREDERIC J. HASKIN
THE THEATER TAX.

| district, for example, includes that state
and in addition the District of Columbia.
The collector has his headquarters al
Baltimore, but he has a deputy collector
in Washington. 1t is the duty of this
deputy collector to see that Washington
pays all of its internal revenue taxes.
Among these are the taxes on admis-
sI sions to theaters and this deputy col. d,
lector must make sure that everybody
who goes to a show is paying the proper
tax and that the tax is finding its way
regularly into the treasury.
The deputy collector at Washington
has 1S revenue agents working under
him and the city is divided among them.
They look over the list regularly and
see that collections do not fail In ad-
dition to this, they must know that each
theater in paying in the full and correct
amount due the government. That they
may assure themselves on this point
they have the privilege of going to any
place of entertainment at any time and
examine the books. This, however, is
not sufficient because they must know
that books are not being falsified to the
benefit of the individual theater
manager.
Protection Through the Printer.
There are many devices to which the
themselves that the government is not
being defrauded. The most ingenious OF
these. and one for which provision is
made in the law itself. is that Of reduir-
ing that all printers who make tickets
for theaters shall report all work done
to the collector of internal revenue:
Most of the theater tickets in the United
States are printed by four or five firms
that specialize upon this work. Not more
than five per cent of tickets are printed
in local shops. The detail of clearing all
tickets printed through these mrss s
establishments is well systematized and
from them the government gets copies
of every bill presented every theater
manager on their list.
These bills are distributed to the col
lectors and the deputy collectors ana I'M
ally to the individual agents who are as
signed to the examination of gwen thea
ters An agent. knowing that a certain
theater had ordered million tickets In
a year would expect the sales report
ed and the stock of tickets on hand TO
tally a million. If there is any discrcp-
ancy he is sure to go to the theater IN
question and ask an explanation. II
tickets have been printed by any otner
agency his examination will develop that
fact because all tickets must be subject
to inspection. If tickets were found
the printing of which had not been re-
ported to internal revenue. both the
printer and the theater would have
violated the law. 1t would be a per-
formance so dangerous that there is
little probability of either printer or ex-
hibitor resorting to it.
The law requires that all places of
amusement must use tickets and that
these must show the price of admission,
the amount of the tax and the total,
and also imposes q penalty for failure to
use tickets or for the use of tickets i'm
properly printed Thus does it become
impossible for theater to print tickets
that sell for any other amount than that
which appears on them. So the govern
ment is assured that it will ultimately
receive from any theater the amount of
money called for by the tickets that are
printed for that theater.