Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1920-04-29

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to meet = rising scale Of tx, and IN
the second instance only the amount
Of the tax itself. It is further mani
| fest that under the method Of taxing
sales the tax will tend to be absorbed
along the line rather than to be adj
ded to.
We take it that such tax would
be levied at q uniform percentage
against all sales Of commodities,
whether at wholesale or retail. That
brokers' or agents commissions would
be treated as their sales. In the case
Of professional men their fees might
be regarded as their sales. All mat
tiers can be readily adjusted once
the principle is accepted. Sales or
transfers Of real estate should not
be taxed.
This method also commends itself
for other reasons. The debt Of back
taxes hanging over the people and
the borrowing by the government in
anticipation might easily be disposed
of by making the tax payable month
| ly. 1t would be very simple matter
for any individual or business house
to report net sales for a month and
pay one per cent upon the same, say,
within the first fifteen days of the
following month; no elaborate cleri-
cal work is involved either upon the
part of the individual or the govern
ment in collecting such tax; and the
tax is based upon something more
substantial than profits, for while
sales will shrink with a change in
conditions they cannot shrink to any
extent comparable with the shrink
age which will take place in profits.
Luxury Tax An Evil.
In considering a tax upon sales,
however, we must not confuse it with
the present luxury tax wherein d.
rect percentage is added to the cost
of certain articles and collected from
the consumer in that form at the re-
tail counter. Such taxes should be
abolished. They should never have
been imposed. The tax on sales
which we are, now contemplating
would be a tax on the sales as re-
corded on the books of any concern,
large or small, and the illustration
we have given shows how this would
be added as a direct percentage in
billing by manufacturers or whole
salers and estimated as an item of ex-
pense in fixing retail prices, when al
ready the custom is to assemble items
of expense and represent them by a
certain definite percentage which is
added to the cost Of the article itself
to cover all the expense of distribu-
ton at retail.
The present luxury tax is a tax
against a consumers purchase, while
a tax on sales would be tax against
the merchants sales and, as shown,
would be treated as an item of ex-
pease of doing business and need not
be collected from the consumer in the
manner of the present luxury tax. A
proper understanding of this point
should remove any objection which
retail merchant may have had against
a tax on sales, formed from his ex-
perience whit the present annoying
luxury tax.
If there is any merit in this sum-
mary, are we not justified in impress
ing upon all citizens the fact that
tile present tax is in many respects
consumption tax ca1noufaged to
look like something else, and taking
from their pockets far more money
than would be necessary to meet
straightforward consumption tax, and
by such an education to prepare peo-
pie to look at this subject of taxation
intelligently, and to concur in and
urge upon Congress change in the
present method Of federal taxation
whereby It might be simplifcd, and
levied and collected in the form of:
(a) A straight normal tax of say
A per cent upon all incomes OF
over 100000 and 100000.
(b) A straight tax of ! per cent
upon al sales wholesale or re-
tail:
(c) A limited series of surtaxes,
sufficiently moderate to avoid
sitting enterprise upon all un-
earned incomes over certain
amount, that is, incomes from
/. bonds, investments, rents, ETC., al
distinct from income derivet
from. personal service or effort
as in the conduct Of business
or the following of a profession.
The suggestion (c) is made to NEE
the objection that under a system o
taxing sales those enjoying large in
comes from investments might no