Evening star., 1933-11-05
PORK PROCESSING
TAX STARTS TODAY
All Dealers in City Must
Check Supply and File Re-
turns Regularly.

The little pig that goes to market will
take his turn in the spotlight toe.ay.
In this case, unlike his three little
kinsmen, there is no big, bad wolf.
There are, however, the Bureau OF In
ternal Revenue and the processing tax.
Washington meat dealers will be af-
fected by the new levy today for the
first time. The taX-collecting agency
of the Government has notified them
to take inventory of all the retail stock
they have on hand today, for on De-
cember 81. and monthly thereafter, they
will have to account to the Government
for every pound of pork they buy and
sell.
Only the pork actually in the store
or market stall for sale today will be
exempt from the tax. Even stocks on
hand. but stored elsewhere than the
the retail counter win have to be ac-
counted for later, so that the small
dealer, with little pork on hand, has
the advantage over the bigger stores
where cured hams and bacon are kept
or where large cold storage stocks are
held for future sale.
Must Account for All.
Today being Sunday, meat stalls.
counters and shops throughout the
country will be closed, but in reality the
day of rest will be used by most dealers
to check and weigh the pork on hand,
as the tax is assessed from this date.
Beginning tomorrow all new pork
purchased and every ounce sold Will
have to be accounted for. The first re-
turn covering the period from Novem-
Der to November 80, will have to pc
flied with the internal revenue once
on December 81. Thereafter monthly
statements will have to be filed, each
with 80 days grace in which to COM
rlete the tabulationS.
On December 5, however, special &C
counting will have to be made. because
on that date if the dealer still has on
Rand any of the goods weighed and
recorded today, that too Will be SUD-
jected to the tax. :,
Although the retailer will be required
to do all this extra bookkeeping. he will
tax tax Furthermore, the buying public
probably will not feel the effects OF the
assessment for many weeks or months.
Will Check Returns.
The explanation is that the Govern
ment will use the returns made by the
dealers in checking against the actual
professors" the men or firms who con-
vert the live hog into hams, bacon,
sausage and other forms Of pork.
They will pay the assessments on the
weight of the live hogs, starting TO-DAY,
at so cents per hundredwelght. Ihat
rate will continue until December l,
when the tax will advance to 81. on
January it will jump to SloO ana
on February l to 81.
To date the commercial packers have
taken the tax out of the price paid the
,-oicoI thn hOOS their oOr-
tention being that. after all, the house.
wife fixes the retail price. Agricultural
Adjustment Administration officials
pointed out yesterday the professors
thus are defeating the purpose OF the
tax. but they believe it will be only
temporary. for eventually the tax will
be used TO limit production to the eX-
tent that supply and demand will force
the price higher until the hog producer
reaps the benefit originally intended.
OF course, the whole success of the
power sufficiently large to absorb higher
costs for pork.
Until this takes place. however. the
consumer will continue to buy pork at
about the level he is enjoying now. Off
Gals believe, and the farmer will get
current prices minus the tax.
Fall Into Three Glasses.
In Washington meat dealers are
chiefly of three classes: The farmer
who butchers his own hogs and retails
them from market stalls, the market
stall proprietor who buys from nearby
Maryland and Virginia farmers and the
dealer who sells pork from the larger
commercial packing houses.
All three classes must take inventory
today, but only the farmers who kill
their own hogs will have to pay the
tax. The other two classes will pay no
tax, but will have to account later for
all the pork they have in storage away
from their retail places of business.
Hereafter the Bureau of Internal
Revenue will have them add all pork
they have bought to the total on hand
today. They will subtract from that
total the amount on hand when the
returns are made, and the difference
will be taxed. If they draw pork from
their own storage plants that also will
be subject to the tax.
Washington dealers. however, who
slaughter their own hogs will be per-
mitted to withdraw whatever they need
for their own consumption. If, for ex-
ample, they kill a hog weighing $50
pounds on which the tax is 125 and
decide to keep one of the hams for
their own use, they will be permitted
to use Department of Agriculture tables
to determine the finished weight of the
ham withdrawn from market. and It's
proportion will be subtracted from the
81 25 assessment