Evening star., 1936-03-10
GEORGE DEFENDS
TAXON SURPRISES
Radio Forum Speaker Says
Evasion and Irequities
Would Be Curbed.

President RooSevelt's new tax pro-
gram was appraised and praised in
an address last night by Senator Wal
ter F. George, Democrat. of Georgia,
member of the Finance Committee
before which the tax bill must come
for public hearings.
Senator George spoke in the Ma
tional Radio Forum, sponsored by
The Star and broadcast over Station
WRC and a Nationwide network Of
the National Broadcasting Co.
The tax program, he said, not only
will repair the damage to the budget
caused by the Supreme Courts invali-
dation of A. A. A. and its processing
taxes and by enactment of the SOL
diers' bonus payment law. but will
erase numerous inequities and prevent
tax evasions costing the Treasury
more than a billion and half dol
lars annually.
Evasion Troubles Government.
'It is not the province of the Gov
ernment to say in what form business
shall be carried on, whether as an
individual enterprise or as a partner
ship or under the corporate set-up,"
Senator George said. Neither is it
for the Government to say whether
the earnings of corporations shall be
distributed.
But it is the concern of the Gov
ernment that structural devices shall
not be used for the purpose of tax
avoidance. Present tax laws make
the corporate form of organization
advantageous to some and disad-
vantage to others, and encourage the
accumulation of unreasonable sur
pluses which, if distributed. would
have brought greater revenue to the
Government through the taxes on the
incomes of the shareholders to whom
the dividends would have gone"
The suggested tax law revision will
remove ''undoubted inequalities in our
taxing system" the Senator added.
Cites Balancing Trend.
He stressed the significance of the
program III view of administration
efforts looking toward a balanced
budget, declaring it was timely to
insist that current revenue should
equal all current expenditures except
for the single purpose of relief and
that expenditures for relief should be
reduced wherever possible"
The text of Senator Georges ad-
dress follows:
When on January 3, last, the
President submitted to the Congress
his annual budget message, the budget
was in balance with the exception
of the single item of relief Esti-
mated receipts during the fiscal year
just ahead-beginning July l-were
sufficient to take care of ali other
regular expenses of the Government.
But in the meantime the budget
situation has been upset by two oc-
currences. In the first place, the
agricultural adjustment act was de-
clared unconstitutional by the Su-
preme Court of the United States.
This resulted in a considerable loss
OF revenue which would have come
In from the processing tax, a levy
laid on the professors of various agri-
cultural commodities. It necessitated
also the raising of revenue with which
TO pay benefits under any new farm
program which might be adopted for
next year and the years to come.
In the second place, the Congress
passed the veterans bonus bill over
the veto of the President. 1t had
originally been planned to pay the
veterans in I945. and the funds were
being gradually accumulated for that
purpose. Advancing the date of pay
ment meant an increase in the amount
included for that purpose in the 1897
budget.
Deficits Grow Smaller.
Naturally enough, during the years
OF depression just past, the expendi-
lures of the Government have been
heavy. Nevertheless. the yearly deficits
have been growing smaller, and had