Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-03-30

With a great tax problem facing the country
without discussing its causes or cures We fnd enor.
and unexpected tax dodRing and revenue
losses reported by the Treasury the part OF those
best able to pay The average. taxpayer asks:
Has any other government given to corporations
equal rights and privileges pots any other govern.
its total business7 Does any other government
report equal corporate profits compared with total
business capital invested
Does any other government permit It's corpora
uons to escape personal taxation through stock
dvidendsi
Does any other government permit tax-free
iies9
Does not England, our largest business competi-
tor. have far heavier taxes than oursg
Should NOT wealth pay taxes according to It's
ability?
Is not this elementary tax principle with every
government
Has private wealth aecumulations In any other
country approached our own
Are like taxescape avenues for wealth found in
other countriesY
Is it not true that tax-free securities are used
TO avoid taxes today
How many billions invested for tax-eseape
purposesY
How many billions are now invested In stock
dividends to escape personal income taAesg
If so per cent. income tax is needed on 100000
personal incomes TO collect sufficient taxes for Fed
era needs, what should be paid undistflbuted
corporate surplus that avoids such tax
Is 1914 per cent fair tax such undistributed
corporate surplusesY
How can tax-free securities be reached for taxa
ton purposes?
Does it not justify so per cent. inheritance tax?
III not why not
How can enormous corporate surpuses be reached
for taxation purposes!
is not graduated tax on undistrbuted corporate
profits fair in principle?
Many queries of equal greater importance
naturally will Those who asked to pro-
vide ways and means are charged with the necessity
of raising funds and to find a just method of doing
so. That is their problem. While corporate opposi-
tion and protests from wealth are certain to come,
taxation is not due TO either, but because both are
subject to the fundamental tax principle.
In today's press will be found large advertise
ment signed by the National City Bank j. p. Nor
gan Co; Kuhn, Loeb a. CO., and other New York
bankers offering $4,000 900 In Cuban bonds at 5h
per cent interest. Fifty million dollars will thus
be taken from the industries Of America with the
approval and active aid Of these agencies TO develop
Cuba, but is it not significant that any effort To
collect existing tax rates from tax-escapng agencies
brings howl Of disapproya because industries
to be hampered!
What Is the answer If taxes are avoided by rich
poor?
Mr. Chairman, I am not complaining that the
National City Bank mark of It's losses in foreign
bonds other securities and then make 25 per
cent. net profits, for this result may be due 70 eff
cheney other legitimate causes which would speak
well for the banks management; but a govern
mental proposition, after having earned % per cent
net profits in 1922, the bank should pay its fair
share Of taxes If to meet Government ex-
penditures.
Secretary Mellon shows where $4,000, ,000,0 900 Of
tax-dodging funds have been laid away beyond he
income-tax collectors reach That amount we know
is rapidly increasing In my remarks of December
20 before the House gave list of stock dividend
melon cutting which covered several pages Of the
Record" This list did not include the National
City Bany, but 328 corporations, according to the
Federal Trade Commission stated have distributed
S2,l49,1 ,425 in 1922 in stock dividends that will
escape personal income taxes, whereas the average
little fellow the individual who has no high-priced
attorneys the partnerships that have earned
small net profit will scrape up every dollar levied
on their non-eseapable incomes.