The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-01-19
TAXES TAX PAYERS AND DEBT

TAXES, TAX PAYERS AMI LID
Some stimulating food for thought i
found in federal income tax facts and lg-
ures published in the newspapers In 1879
513 persons paid income taxes on more
than million dollars annual income. III
1892 million dollar personal incomes hau
decreased to 20. In 1929, 513 individuals
enioyed incomes of more than a million
dollars a year. In 1882 only 20 persons IN
the United States reported million dollar
incomes.
In1932 personal income tax payers with
net incomes of less than $4,000 paid less
thans13 per cent. of the tota! amount OF
federal income taxes collected, but ac-
counted for more than 80 per cent. OF the
returns, The heaviest income taxes are
levied on corporations and the next largest
amount is paid by wealthy individual tax
payers.
The small tax payers, having net IN
comes of less than $4,000, number nine
fenths of the total tax payers but pay only
q little more than one-tenth of the taxes.
The records show not only a decrease
from 513 to 20 in the number Of big lndl-
viduai tax payers, but show a marked de
crease in the number of corporation tax
PAYERS and also show that large numbet
of corporations made no profits and paid
no taxes in 1882.
With the country diving into debt at the
present rate and shortly to be confronted
with the largest public debt IN the coun'
try's history and the largest public debt II
the history of the world, one OF the vita
problems of the future is going to be tho
problem of finding tax money to pay inter
est and principal of the national debt
Nine-tenths of the people have been pay
ing but small part of the total of income
and other taxes. A tenth of the people OF
the paying list and the corporations have
paid nine-tenths of the taxes.
Has it ever occurred to those citizens
who are clamoring so voriferously for the
confiscation, through taxation and other
wise, of corporate wealth and large indi
vidual fortunes, that they are proposing tt
kill the golden egg-laying fowls of the
country? In fact long step in that direc
ton has already been made, In 1929 SIS
individuals paid tax on incomes of more
than million dollars-they not only paid
on huge sums but paid at the highest rate
of taxation-the same is true of the large
corpOrations-now only twenty individuals
in the country have incomes of million
dollars a year and hundreds of corpora,
lions show no profits whatever
If big business is MIXED dry and Social
ism makes conditions so difficult for bust
ness that business will either show ne
profits or be bankrupted, who is going t.
pay the mortgage Wall Street and thu
other bondholders hold on the country!
That mortgage today probably amounts tt
more than the total value of all the prop
ertv owned by nine-tenths of the country
income tax payers. The class that pays NJ
income taxes cannot be expected to pa!
taxes in. any other form in appreciate,
amounts. If big business and wealthy PEG
pie don't pay the taxes, who is going t.
pay them? If big business is wrecked ant
wealthy people are made poor by govern
fentat policies that are destructive of tn
propeI rty and wealth and earning power c
the country, how are the poor people goini
to D. nv off the mortgage on the Unit