Evening star., 1937-06-13
The Tax Bills.

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has been made to analyze, as carefully
as time and limited space permit, the
proposed tax measures affecting the Dis
trict Of Columbia, which come before the
House tomorrow. 1t is significant that
this analysis provides the unrepresented
taxpayers Of Washington the only op-
portunity they have had to acquaint
themselves with the nature and content
Of the new tax bills
No public hearings have been held
on the omnibus measure rushed to the
House. No sound estimates are avail
able regarding the amount Of new tax
alton being dumped on the people of
the District, the estimates ranging from
six million dollars to twice that amount.
The Star has been handicapped in it's
attempt to obtain information on the
bills by the confusion and apparent be-
v1lderment which has afflicted those
who took part in drafting them. and has
had to rely chiefly on other sources Of
information.
The analysis Of the bills suggests that
the House may refer them back to the
District Committee for further exami-
nation and the correction of manifest
errors or omissions. But if the House
should proceed to the enactment of the
measures tomorrow, the people of the
District trust that the members will re-
call that in this case they are acting as
the members of a local legislature,
guarding the interests and the welfare
Of their voteless constituents and as
anxious as they would be at home to
prevent inequltles and excessive taxa
ton.
Should the tax bills proposed in the
omnibus measure be passed, certain
changes should be made aside from
those which are suggested in The Stars
analysis.
l. The income tax should be made
substitute for the present tax on in
tangible personal property. and not
enacted as an additional tax. It is nro-
posed as an additional tax now on the
excuse that the income tax may be
found invalid in its application to Fed
eral employees. Are the people OF the
District to pay through the nose on two
separate taxes while the lawyers are
testing the validity of a proposed sub
etitute form of tax? No such prepos-
ferrous idea would be entertained for q
he y.
q The estate tax has always been
proposed as method of obtaining for
the District the eighty per cent Of the
Federal estate tax of 1926 allowed as a
credit for local taxes. But in it's present
form the estate tax is accompanied by
an inheritance tax, digging down into
the little inheritances and taking the
tax collectors share Of small amounts
left to widows and orphans not sub
1ect to the Federal tax. The inheritance
tax should be killed and the estate tax
confined In its provisions to recapturing
the allowable eighty per cent of the
Federal tax.
always proposed in the past as a sub
shtute for the personal property tax on
automobiles, should be enacted as
substitute taX-not, as proposed, as an
addltlonal tax, with the personal prop
erty tax retained. And the proceeds of
the tax should be applied to the deficit
In the general fund, where the money
Is needed, not segregated in the highway
department., where it will do no i'm
mediate good.
4. The so-called business privilege
tax should be killed outright or else
amended to conform in exemptions and
other provisions to fairer laws in the
States. AS drawn, the bill is complicated
as to administration and plainly con-
f1scatory in some of it's effects.
The fact that little time remains be-
fore the beginning of the new fiscal
year In which the taxes are to take ef-
feet is no excuse for blanketing local
taxpayers with this omnibus bill. with
Its poorly drawn provisions and its
threatened inequities. If members Of
the House will give the bill the close
attention they would devote to meas
ure affecting their voting constituents
the Districts fears are at least mini
mized