Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-13
STATE SALES TAX
INQUIRY STARTED
Mississippi Sends Out Au-
ditors to Check Up on
Returns.
BY GEORGE N. COAD.
Special DISPATCH to The Star

Special Dispatch to The Star.
JACKSON, Miss, June 13.-Missis-
sippi has not yet discovered how her
2 per cent sales tax is coming on, but
she Is putting IS rowing investigators
in the field to find out. These audi
tors will visit the larger towns, one
following the other, so that their re-
ports OF the merchants records may be
compared
The sales tax is estimated to bring
In S2,O0O,O00 annually but no one, Of
course, knows what it will bring in. No
returns have yet been made and none
will be made until June IS. Even then
many merchants may obtain extensions
OF time for filing reports, and so it
VIII probably be six weeks before any
sound indication of the success or fail
ure OF the levy can be had.
Meanwhile the attitude of the State
seems to be to wait and give the tax
a chance. Mississippians all realize
that the State is desperately in need of
money and that somebody must pay
the bill.
Monthly Returns Required.
The Is rowing auditors are to inspect
the mercantile establishments in towns
and cities Of over $500 population. One
Will follow the other, not as the State
tax commission points out, because the
auditors are not trusted, but because
the commission wants to compare their
notes. In the commissions Office six
oookkeepers will keep records and the
expenses OF the two crews will prob
ably be around $1,000 per week.
In most cities merchants are alb
Sorolng the tax on sales under 19 cents,
but from 20 cents TO so cents they are
collecting l cent. and on all sales above
30 cents they collect at the rate of 2
per cent.
Merchants must make monthly re-
turns OF all sales. both cash and credit,
by 1.-The 18th of the succeeding month,
unless they obtain from the tax COM
mission an extension Of time. II
merchants sales are less than $40 per
month the reports may be made quar-
terly. Remittance must be made with
the reports, but extensions may be OBJ
tanned for credit sales in accordance
with rules to be made by the commits
sion, but such extensions shall not be
for more than As days
Merchants are required to keep such
records as the commission may pre-
scribe Of gross income and gross re-
ceipts and to keep on file all invoices
for two years from their date All
these records must be made available
at any time to State inspectors.
No tax is levied on sales made to the
United States nor to the State Of
Mississippi, nor upon the sale of school
books under contract The receipts Of
hospitals and sanitaria are excluded,
but doctors do not fare so we'll. Cot
ton, OF which Mississippi produces more
than any other State except Texas,
pays no tax. and cotton seed in its
raw state is likewise exempt. Real and
personal property bears the levy, but
stocks and bonds do not.
Electric Power Tax.
The tax Of 2 per cent upon electric
power Tor domestic purposes and of !
per cent Tor industrial plants must be
borne by the seller. The same rule
applies to natural gas.
Chairman Alt Stone Of the tax COM
mission declared that he was receiving
fine reactions from every section Of
law Is properly administered it can be
made popular.
Whether or not it is now popular it
would be difficult to state. Certainly
when 1t was proposed there were loud
protests from the merchants associa-
lions. mass meeting at Jackson was
attended by about 5000 persons. mostly
from out OF town. but whether these
protestants represented the mass of the
people who pay the tax, no one pre-
tends to say. In the Legislature it re-
CURED long and strenuous efforts to
get a majority for the tax.
Copyright, 1922