Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-09
BY DAVID LAWRENCE

BY DAVID LAWRENCE
downright, 1920. for The Atlanta Journal.)
WASHINGTON, March 5.-Some
day the persons who thought Uncle
Same would never have time to check
up on Individual returns will be just
as surprised when they are indicted
and punished as the persons who
never dreamed that certain kinds of
graft entirely unrelated to income
taxes. would be exposed to public
view. --s'- So
Special experts are working with
United States attorneys in the. prose-
tion of cases in which tax returns
have been falsified. Already there
Nkaye been indictments, and Jail SEN
fences. The government is not pub
fishing all it's information, but in
one rather populous section of the
country, it is estimated that at least
500, 100000 in taxes haven't been
paid that should have been paid.
Slowly but surely government in
vestigators are getting data. The
treasury departments agents have
the authority to subpoena all persons
who have records Of dividends paid.
For instance the government can,
If it chooses, ask for @ mans check
book and can get from his band the
amount of his deposits. AS a general
rule, that isn't done unless fraud
is suspected and evidence is gathered
for a possible prosecution.
I. $40,ooo,o0o Recovered
+ 1t took fifty agents of the govern
rnent recently nearly three months
lin the field to audit big account
and something like s40,000,0OO was
recovered when the job was over.
Nonresident aliens can't escape
any more than can aliens who try to
leave the United States without pay
ing their taxes. A special machin-
cry has been devised to act in emer-
gencies. There are certain ports of
the United States where agents of
the utmost reSourcefulness are sta
toned. They know how to get court
orders in jiffy to stop an indiv4 Iual
from going across the international
line or getting his passports for an
ocean voyage if income taxes have
not been paid.
/. Information about every concetv-
able activity from natural re-
sources to farming to shipping to
manufacturing-every phase of hu-
man endeavor-is recorded by the
governm through income tax re-
turns. Access to other government
records is available, but nobody else
in the government, no other depart
ment or bureau, can get hold OF in
come tax returns. These are care
fully guarded from prying eyes. Yet
mass of statistical information OF
incalculable value will be ready with
IN the next two or three years. Mass
figures will be given out some day
showing the average cost to run a
bakery, a candy shop, shoe factory,
a steel mill, and the profits made in
each group and the costs OF produc-
ton in each classification.
o Groups
In fact, that is one of the ways
the government detects false returns.
All the bakers are grouped all the
butchers, all the DOCTORS, all the
lawyers, all the farmers in certain
sections of the country, all the cot
ton growers. Each has filed a return
showing his cost of production ani
deducting the expenses which he
thinks he should be allowed to sub
tract from. the total of his income.
Now, of course, it is improbable that
all the bakers, for example, acted in
a conspiracy to put down exactly
how much their costs of production
were in any year. Competitors do
not engage in conspiracles. So on the
face Of it, the government has gen.
eral collection of statistics on each
trade, profession or business. And
then when somebody comes along
and wants to claim that he paid an
employe or manager $4,000 a year,
when nobody in the whole business,
wholesale Or retail, included any such
return, the government investigator
takes the matter in hand.
To be sure, some odd cases have
arisen, and some big concerns have
been on the carpet here about tex
cessive salaries" And the govern
ment has, in many cases, decided
that the allowance for salary was
beyond the average and the employer
did not prove that his employee pos