Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-11-16
WHEN N COMES
EASILY: DREAM OF ALL
Daily Letter by Frederic }. Haskin

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13-Inher-
itances as a subject Of magma
ton and discussion never lose their
glamour. There probably never
lived a man who sometime in MS
life did not spend at least a little
while in dreaming of the possibility
of coming into an estate, an inner
itance. or becoming rich overnight.
The prospect, however, remote n
intangible, of Unexpectedly possess
ing funds not directly earned by
the sweat of the brow is n which
irresistibly provokes contemplation.
That is the reason why wills,
missing heirs, lost witnesses and
interminable lawsuits involving es-
tates have so prominent a place in
| the stories of literature and the
stage. They are properties of the
Goddess of Fortune whom everyone
| seeks. For this reason the cold sta
tistics of the Internal Revenue Bu-
| reau, recording the bare facts of
| the estates which are transmitted
in the United States, are of ab-
| sorbing interest. No personal de-
| tails are to be found because. under
the law, no such facts may be di-
vulged. The statistics are made
available to the researcher only IN
general terms. but even their u S
tere columns harbor an odor OF the
same romance which made the
immortal, the same fascination
which makes everybody read a will
case in the newspapers.
The figures do not reveal how the
fortunes were bequeathed. They
tell no stories of newsboys
who helped old ladies across crowd
ed streets and later woke UP mill
Iionaires because the old ladies on
their deathbeds. remembered the
kind deeds. Nothing like that. The
| reader must furnish all such de-
tails, building up what stories he
likes on the hard basis of facts.
Billions Go to Heirs
What the figures do show is that
in the period from September 1916
to January, 1922, the latest for
which statistics have been com
| piled, 1920 estates passed to fort
innate heirs. The total sum be-
queathed staggers the imagination.
1t amounted to sS,7S5.641,sSe. The
average individual would consider
himself lucky If his morning mail
| informed him that some old uncle's
will had left him $1,000. But,
within this brief period enough
money was inherited to make S.
7S5 millionaires. The sum if aver
| aged among the recipients would
give each a fortune of about $780,
900, which is enough for a man to
live upon all his days. Forty-two
thousand persons, enough to popu-
late a good sized city, all were made
| rich through inheritance in this
bvief period.
The beneficiary does not get the
whole amount of the bequest, for
the stern-visaged Treasury lax
gatherer steps in and takes a share
which, in some cases. is as much
as one-ifth. The total tax paid
on these requests of nearly So
900, OOO,O o was s351.13s,S23. The
smaller estates bring the average
down so that for the whole bulk the
rate was only $40 per cent on an
average or an average tax of only
$e,597.35 per estate. The big es-
tates are those which pay the
greatest taxes. For instance. the
average tax paid OF the estates in
the group of $4,000, 600 and over
was over 100000.
1t is a curious fact that the benz
e~ficiaries of Wills greatly dislike to
give up to the tax collector n part
of the sum inherited, in spite of the
fact that 1t is practically a gift for
which no labor has been perform
ed, and sometimes comes from a
relative who was a stranger. This
curious disinclination to part with
any of ones winnings from the
chance hand Of fortune is illustrat-
ed by the tale of the woman who
sued to break a will. She had
been disinherited where she ex-
pected a bequest and went to court.
she lost the cas- and, of course,
the sum she desired.
well" she said when the YER
dict was rendered. "At least ]
won't have to pay Inheritance tax.
I have saved that"
The inheritance tax is levied on
net estates, that Is what remains
after the various deductions per-
missible under the tax laws are
made. The estates listed In the
period under review were brought
down to a net figure of s5.407.-
e73,531 and the tax levied upon
that sum.
Deductions are of various char
acters. In the first place there il
a specific deduction OF $4,000 fol
Ian sxtatea and no enA xh0 leeNel