Evening star., 1925-11-12
Tax Publicity
And Everybody's Business
BY WILLIAM p. HELM, JR.

tional banks already have been de
tailed. Those Of the others are thus
classified by the Government:
5,101 State banks lost. S34, ,272 1868
637 trust companies lost. 18,725,9S
978 loan companies lost. l2,9Z9,o0S
5l7 stock and bond brok-
erS lost. ...-........ IZ,zo9,Vio
1888 real estate, loan and
insurance agents
a n d development
firms lost. t......... 80 ,O62, OH
1872 companies holding
and leasing realty
but not in the
realty business lost S8,S94 ,635
X 4 X X
Grouped with the Nations banks,
the bureau has placed its insurance
companies under the general heading
of financial institutions. The tax re-
turns for these concerns are illumi-
mating. They show, with other things,
that
Profits of life insurance companies
1855 made money out of a total of
41O both stock and mutual, during
1923 totaled 500, ,039 ,706. Fifty nine
companies however, lost money, their
| aggregate losses running to about
$7S0,000
Accident insurance companies, stock
companies only, numbering 80, operat-
ed at net profit of $1S6,000 during
the year. Nineteen made money; IL
lost.
Accident, fire, marine companies
mutual only, reported to the number
of COS. OF them, less than half, or
| 241. operated at profit aggregatin2
81, l,012 900. The remaining 364 report
ed II deficit of more than 500, 600 600
A deficit. in this case, was to be eX
pected, but the size of the deficit
was unusually large.
Two fidelity and bonding companies
reported. one of them made money
an even $1,000, TO be exact. The
other lost $lG5. The bonding business
of the United States, as reported by
these two corporations, made a net
profit of $685. during the year. Tn.
Incorporated bonding companies are
not included in the internal revenue
bureaus returns.
All the 1850 incorporated insurance
companies, stock and mutual, of all
kinds doing business in the United
States reported net profits totaling
Sl+7, ,563,92S for Lib firms and losses
Of 1892 ,936,36G for another group OF
1871 firms. The latter includes the
500, ,0O0 600 accident, fire and marine
loss reported by mutual companies
and referred to already.
x + x X
Thus, under the grand total Of
finance. the Government has tabulated
the facts gathered from tax returns
Of 96,172 corporations. OF these. g.
G54 reported net income tOtaliug SSGS
OS3,4 and 34,llS reported deficits
totalinG Si10,S13,152 1t will be seen
that dollar profits and losses adhered
fairly closely to the twO-to-one ratio
established by the number Of con,
cern%fnaking or losing money.
For every dollar made in net prof.
its by these organizations about 50
cents was lost, taking the group as
whole.
Here Is another interesting side.
light gathered by the Government
from the tax returns of concerns
engaged in finance:
More than $4,000 corporations in
this class, or nearly half Of those
operating at profit. earned. on the
average about $3.50 apiece during the
year; another group of 1916 earned
slightly over $4,000 each during the
year; 1900 earned about $500 each,
and only 1S4 made net profits exceed.
ing S50O,0O0. a total Of 900 reported
profits ranging from 500 ,0G0 to $780,
GOO each.
From " hich it appears that in bank
ing, as III everything else, the trend
of the pre- fits was to a few large, out.
standing companies, say one company
out OF every 100 in the business, and
that these companies We're so attraC.
tive TO the customers that a legion
of smaller and less attractive con.
Germs in the same business had to live
on the crumbs alone.
fCopyriEht 1881