The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-07-13
UNREST OVER
SALES TAX IS
WIDESPREAD
Arrests Made For Failure
to Comply With Law;
Prices Marked up
By J. c. Baskerville
The Times-News Bureau
Sir Waller Hotel

. RALEIGH, July discharges
that, chain stores are taking ad-
vantage of the per cent sales
tax and the ruling of Commission
err A. J. Maxwell that it is not
necessary to show the amount OF
the tax with each purchase, to in
crease prices from 10 to Is per
cent rather than only 3 per cent,
are being made by merchants
here. They point to the fact that
the managers Of two chain stores
in Fayetteville have already been
arrested for failure to comply with
the law. Reports were also re-
ceived here yesterday to the eff
feet that warrants had been drawn
for the arrest of the manager OF
Rocky Mount chain store. 1t was
also reported that the managers
of two large chain grocery store
systems had been ordered to mark
up their prices on everything IN
their stores Is per cent and to
tell the public that the increase
in prices had been necessary be-
cause of the sales tax.
This development is being blam-
ed by the merchants here on the
refusal of Commissioner of Rev
enue Maxwell to require all
merchants to show the price of
every article and the amount Of
the sales tax separately on all the
cards advertising prices. 1t has al
so served to renew the demand
from the merchants that the pres
ent regulations be revised to re-
quire all merchants to do this. I'm
der the present regulations issued
by Commissioner Maxwell, it is
optional with merchants to either
show the sales price and the tax
separately, or to include the tax
in the advertised price. Many of
the merchants are also Directing
to the four different schedules
set up for the collection of tht
tax and are asking that one single
schedule or bracket be prepared
TO apply to all atlke.
"Until it is made mandatory for
| all merchants to show the sales
price and the tax separately, some
of the merchants are going to re-
fuse to show the tax and take adj
vantage of the law to boost their
prices more than per cent" said
Willard l.. Dowell, executive sec
rotary of the North Carolina
Merchants association. at is also
fact that as long as the four
different brackets for the collec-
ton of the tax stay in effect that
some merchants are going to con-
tinue to lose money, especially
those whose sales are mostly in
the five and ten cents range.
"Most of the merchants of the
state want to cooperate with the
state in making the sales tax as
much of success as possible, de-
spite the fact they believe it to
be unfair and unwieldy, -" Dowell
continued. "But they cannot make
a success of it under the existing
regulations and schedules. No
merchant can be satisfied with a
tax under which he must steadily
lose money.
"But if Commissioner Maxwell
will do two things, most of the
merchants will be satisfied and
will cooperate with him fully. The
first is to make it mandatory for
every merchant to show both the
sales prices of his goods and the
amount of tax separately, as we
have been asking from the start,
but which Maxwell has made OPP
tional. This has given an advan-
tage to those stores that do not
want to show the tax but that do
want to use it as an excuse to
boost their price more than 8 per
cent. The second is to revise the
schedules for imposing the tax and
set up only one schedule to apply
to all merchants alike, and impos-
ling the tax on all purchases from