Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-11
MOVIE MEN IN PUZZLE
 OVER NEW STATE TAX
Why is a tax?

Why is a tax?
 That is what the perplexed managers | of motion picture theaters are asking l themselves as they resharpen their lead | pencils and try once moro to figure out what they will owe the state and federal governments after September l when the amusement tax law passed by the gem eraF assembly goes into effect The man agers are already paying 10 per cent of the box office receipts to Uncla Sam and two months hence they. will also have to pay 5 per cent. to Tax Commis- sioner Blodgett who, to all intents and purposes, represents the state of Con- necticut in this respect.
 Commissioner Blodgett has been caro- tful to make it clear throughout the dIS- cUssion of this new law that his depart ment had no intention or desire to die. tate how the tax should be raised The theatre managers were to be free to in- crease the price of admission per cent and thus directly pass the buck" to the patron as is done with the federal tax Or they could pocket the loss, pay 1 ing it from their profits and keeping the price of admissoin as it Is. But now the theater managers are anxious to | have someone tell them what to do. | They rather wish that the tax commis- sloner hadn't been quite so careful not to i interfere with their business and had
 instead prescribed just how the new l tax was to be raised by them and so
 written it into the law.
 Here is one of the problems with which the theatre men are beginning to
 tussle A good many of them charge an admission price of 10 cents, of course paying cents of this to the federal government under the 10 per cent. tax law. Afte= the first of September the state of Connecticut will also claim 1
 cent for every 20-cent ticket sold ; the system to put in force by the state. tax department being that the theater man. ager must pay the state one-half of what
 is paid the federal government for the same period. But many of the theater
 managers say that if their share of a
 20-cent ticket is reduced below IS cents
 they cannot make enough to 20 on do- ing business and hence the amount of
 the state tax added to the price of the
 admission, making it 21 cents.
 But the federal law declares that ar
 admission of more than 20 cents and
 not more than 30 cents shall pay a ta1 of cents. Thus as soon as the theatel
 manager raises his ticket price to 21
 cents, the United States government wipes out the increase entirely.
 And this is not all. The state law states that oV per cent, Of the arnOun' paid to the federal government shall b, , prima facie the amount due te the stat. under the provisions of the act Thu as soon IS the theater manager ha. raised his admission price to 21 cents, ii order to pay the state tax, not only doe! l the federal law take the extra cent ava, , from him. but the Connecticut law a once makes his liable to the state fol r another half cent. Thus he faces . , federal tax of cents and state ta, of 1 1-5 cents. This would reduce tn, ) theater managers share of ! 31 cen 5 admission to 16 1-2 cents.
 The total of these taxes is four an, f one-half cents and it is reported in som l sections that the only thing the theate
 managers can do is to boost q zo-cen admission to 25 cents and thus not onl, be able to pay the taxes but make hal l a cent more profit than at present
 -l What is to be done? The motion pie g ture men have asked themseles tha $ question so many times without gettin, , lany satisfactory answer that, at las : plans are being made to hold | Eet-te