The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-10-30


streets will not be enforced until
Nov 10. Citizens may clean up
their premises and dump the
leaves in cutters for the street
cleaners TO cart away. City ordi-
nance prohibits burning leaves.
After Nov. 10 those who put leaves
in streets will be arrested.
ued and in event OF refusal Of the
lists to representatives OF Strips
Howard newspapers suitable action
to compel publicity will be taken"
The opinion from Baker. Hostet1r
and Sidlo follows:
The statutes Of the United States
make a distinction between the kind
Of information relating to income tax
which may be published and that
kind which may not be published.
Section 1857 Of the revised statutes
provides that it shall be unlawful
for any person to print or publish in
any manner whatever not provided
by law any income return, or any
part thereon, or source Of income,
profits, losses or expenditures APP
pearing in any income return.
This provision of the law has
been cited by some internal revenue
collectors as their authority in re-
fusing to permit newspapers to pub
Hsh the names of income taxpayers
and the amount Of tax paid by them
This attitude Of the internal
revenue collectors results from their
failure to take into consideration
the distinction between returns and
tax paid"
Section 257 of the Revenue Act
Of 1924, provides that returns upon
which the tax has been determined
by the commissioner, shall constitute
public records, but they shall be
open to inspection only upon order
of the President and under rules and
regulations prescribed by the secre-
tary and approved by the President.
Must Prepare List
"A further paragraph In that sec
ton, however, provides that the
commissioner on internal revenue
shall as soon as practicable in each
year cause to be prepared and made
available to public inspection in
such manner as he may determine
in the office Of the collector in each
internal revenue district and in any
such other places as he may deter
mine, lists containing the names and
the postoffice addresses Of each per
son making an income tax return
such district together with the
amount Of the income tax paid by
such person.
Protect One Side
THE reason for protecting one
kind Of information from publication
and permitting the other kind to be
published readily appears. If the
returns made by the taxpayer. that
is, the report as TO his source Of in
come. his profits, losses, etc, were
to be made public, it might cause
him serious injury and give to his
competitors an undue advantage.
But the publication Of only the
amount Of tax paid could not cause
any injury to a person in his bust
ness. 1t would afford no information
which would be Of any value to
competitor.
These two positions Of Section
257 seem to make quite obvious the
distinction between returns upon
which the tax has been determined
and income tax paid
Referring to Section 1867 Of the
Revised Statutes, it will be observed
that the thing which the statute
makes unlawful is the publishing of
the return made by the income tax
payer showing the source Of his in
come. the profits, losses and expen-
ditures. 1t does not by its Ian
guage or by any fair inference make
it unlawful to publish the amount
Of tax paid.
at must also be borne In mind
that there are no crimes excepting
such as are made so by law. There
fore, when the law as laid down in
section 1857 fOrbids publication of
return on sources of income of
profits. losses or expenditures ap-
pearing in any income return, there
cannot be read into it also a PROPOSE
ton of the doing Of thing which
is not expressly named in the stat
ute.
IF it. were the intention of the
statute to make it unlawful to pub
Iish the amount of tax paid as OBJ
tanned from the list which the
commissioner is required to have
prepared, there would not be
slightest difficulty in Congress hav.
ing included that provision in Sec
ton 3167.
''If collectors Of internal revenue
will simply have in mind the diff
ference between the meaning of
the words, income tax paid and
returns upon which the tax has
been determined by the commits
sioner,' the difficulties under which
they appear to have been laboring
will vanish"
(OODeTatiVes Advance