Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-12-18
COMMITTEE SCORES
LOOSE NE TH()D5 IN
REVENUE BUREAU

| WASHINGTON, Dec. 15.-Chair
| man Couzens, of the special senate
committee Investigating the internal
revenue bureau, declared in a state
ment today that the committee had
! found much looSeneSS in the eXecG-
| ton of the work. of the bureau, re
sulting in the apparent loss of mi
lions of dollars of revenue TO the
! government
In some Of these cases." the
chairman declared, 1.-The department
officials have admitted errors, and
While the committee charges no dis
honesty, it finds much lOOseness in
| the execution of the work.
Noting that review had been
lordered of one case involving am al
legged over allowance of 100000 in
taxes to one company, Senator Cou
zens said special investigators were
now working on other cases which
will be taken up this week by the
committee. He invited the public tn
send in suggestions for simplifying
| the procedure of the bureau as We'll
as the statutes
Heavy Losses to Government
This lack of uniformity" Senator
| CouZens declared, worked great in
justice to some taxpayers and eXces-
sive reductions to others. The in
| Justice arose, not because the evil
ldence showed that many taxpayers
| paid taxes they should not pay, bur
rather that taxpayers were relieved
who should not have been relieved.
For example, a large shlpbulld-
| ing concern on the Pacific was al
| lowed q claim by the United States
| shipping board involving S800000,
and the same claim was allowed by
the internal revenue bureau, thus los
ing to the government some $600,-
900 in taxes 1t developed clear
| case of lack of proper working ar
rangements between the two depart
ments, the responsibility for which
was upon the internal revenue bu-
reau.
THE committee has been assured
that an effort will be made to col
lect this 100000, and if it is col
lected, as the committee believes it
should, fully ten times the cost of
the committees work will have been
collected in one case.
The committee found other cases
where claims were allowed for
amortization on plants and equip
ment purchased before our country
entered the World war, and yet it
was clearly provided by statute that
only amOrtiZa ton was to be allowed
on war plants and war equipment
which were purchased after We en-
tered the war.
THE committee also found that
taxpayers received advantages over
other taxpayers because of the meth
DDS used in keeping their books The
cases that the committee have eX-
amined in this connection represent
a loss to the government, if the COM
mittee's Interpretation is correct, of
many millions of dollars of revenue.
"The committee has come across
some cases of what looks like what
is termed in Wall street as washed
sales for the purpose of tax evasion,
and it appears that the bureau has
not given sufficient consideration to
these attempts to evade taxes. Tax
payers have made excessive claims
for amortization, alleging that they
purchased excess facilities for war
purposes. LaXity in fixing the ex-
tent OF the use of these plants sub
sequently to the war has developed
! in our hearings.
Lax returns of the L. >. Steel cor
poratlon were taken up today by the
committee.
Chairman Couzens announced the
case involved an alleged loss of re
turns to the government of about
$2O,OOO,O00 as a result of what the
committee considered excessive al
| loWance to the corporation on amor
tization claims He said he believed
the evidence showed the corporation
was granted excessive allowances Tor
lamortizati ton upon its conversion
from a war operated plant to a pci-
vate organization. The corporation :
original amortiza ton claim was $50
| 100000, he said and about $50 ,00Q,-
| 900 was allowed