Evening star., 1925-09-06
AUTO EXCISE TAX
REMOVAL SOUGHT
Should Be First Concern of
Reduction Advocates.
A. A. A. Heads Say.

The burden of excise taxes placed
on the motorists of this country
should he taken into consideration in
any program designed to reduce ma
tional taxation in the next Congress.
This declaration comes from the
American Automobile Association in
a statement calling attention to the
fact that there are four times as many
persons paying taxes on automobiles
and parts as there are persons pay
ing income taxes. The A. A. A. calls
on the owners of the II T,591 ,9S1 motor
vehicles registered in the United
States to line up Solidly behind the
movement to obtain a repeal of the
motor excise tax in the very near
future.
The total excise tax paid by motor
lists on cars and parts for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1925, ii is point
ed out, was s122, ZAP .440.29. This sum
is equivalent to $29 for each motor
vehicle. Altogether, motorists paid
in 1924 S555. .O2S.54S in Federal, State
and municipal taxes.
Pointing to the expected surplus of
$3.50 600. 900 for the fiscal year 1926,
Thomas p. Henry. president of the
A. A. A, declares that the special
tax imposed on motorists as class
can be removed without risling
uSlcft IN etleEdl llHdHCtS.
-Four times as many persons are
interested in the repeal of the excise
tax as are interested in reducing in
come taxes" asserted Mr.. Henry.
land if any class is entitled TO tax
alton relief Congress should first con-
slider the motorists of the country.
who are now overwhelmed with Fed
eral, State and municipal taxes to the
tune of more than $500, 100000 a year.
The motor vehicle excise tax is
essentially unsound. Even as a war
measure 1t was unsound to base the
tax on the assumption that the auto
mobile is a luxury. Ninety per cent
of all cars are used more or less for
business purposes, while more than 90
per cent of the total passenger ear
mileage is strictly for business use.
Realizing that a tax on transpor-
tation is the greatest impeachment to
business improvement, Congress re-
moved the tax on the steam railroads
as well as the tax on telephone and
telegraph messages, the only eXcep-
tion being in the case of the auto
mobile, the motor bus and the motor
truck.
And yet the greatest portion of
the freight handled by the railroads
is also handled by trucks while the
motor bus has fast developed into a
gigantic agency or mass tranSpOftd-
ton. Motor vehicles carry annually
six times as many passengers as the
steam railroads. The discrimination
against the motor bus and truck is
even more fragrant than that against
the automobile owner.
THE tax is discriminatory in its
effect on both an instrument of COM
merce and a commodity. The product
of no other basic industry is similarly
taxed by the Federal Government.
The automobile owner today is the
most taxed individual in America.
Every taxing unit has tried to get as
much money from him as possible. 1t
is not unusual for him to pay as many
as seven different kinds of taxes, such
as an excise tax, State license fee,
gasoline tax. personal property tax
city personal property tax, State
drivers license and a State registra-
ton fee.
THE motorist is paying far too
heavy a share of the operating ex-
penses of the Government. He is un-
questionably the largest income tax
payer in the country. If it is the de-
sire of Congress to so distribute tax
reduction as to benefit the largest pos
sible number of people, this relief
should begin with the automotive