The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-10-14
WHO PAYS THE TAXES?

1t is one of the fundamental prom
Uses of the average demagogue that he
will make the rich pay the taxes, if
he is elected to office. Such promise
makes the one who pledges, a dema-
gogue, because there is no way to
make the rich pay all the taxes-not
even to pay as much proportionately
as the poor.
The federal income taxes are paid
in the main by those with higher earn
ings, and the fellow with family is
exempted $4,000, with another $500
for each dependent. This does not
mean, however, that the married man
who makes less than $1,000 a year
pays no taxes, even to the federal
government. For only 46 per cent of
the taxes levied by Uncle Sam come
from those who pay on incomes. The
other Sd per cent of the money is
raised in different ways, and most of
these so-called hidden" taxes are
passed on to the poor consumer.
The Twentieth Century fund has es-
timated that the man earning only
$18 a week and owning no property
pays about SIG a year in hidden"
taxes, or about IL cents on the dollar,
while the fellow earning $3.50 month
and owning a secondhand car but
paying no income tax has to put out
1929 year in hidden" taxes.
A study recently made by the
Northwestern Life Insurance Com
pany shows that 25.3 per cent of the
money paid in rent by the average
tenant goes not to the landlord but to
the tax collector. If these taxes could
be cut in two, the tenants rent would
be reduced. He is paying the taxes on
the property, but he doesn't realize
| it..
The survey indicates that the invisi-
BILE taxes included in the price of food
we buy average about IL per cent of
the whole price. Other hidden" taxes
are as follows: clothing, per cent;
fuel and light bills, 9.5 per cent; Sum-
maries and miscellaneous household
expenses, 10.5 per cent. Used auto
mobile ownership and operation pay
out more than twenty per cent of their
cost in taxes.
Invisible but traceable taxes are
more than 6 per cent of the retail
price of bread, over per cent of the
price of beer, and 18 per cent Of the
price of sugar. The price of a mans
suit of clothes contains over 10 per
cent in taxes picked up in its travel
from the back of the sheep to the
back of the purchaser.
Of course it is fact that some of
the hidden" taxes are so carefully
hidden that it is impossible to esti-
mate them so that the actual tax load
on the poor consumer is really greater
than the figures indicate. And even
these figures show that it is too much.
All the studies made by various
financial agencies go to show that the
poor man pays a much greater tax in
comparison to his income than the
rich man. This is for the most part be-
cause of the ironclad economic rule
that it is the poor consumer who has
to bear the cost. And no college pro-
fessor-economist has yet been able
to find way around this law.
So when anyone promises that he
will, if elected, take the taxes off the
poor and load them on to the rich, put
him down either as an ignoramus or a
demagogue. If he wants to do some
thing really for the poor consumer he
will try to help bring about economy
and sound financing. 1t is not by shift
ing the tax burden but by Tightening
it all around that something can be
done in the way of tax reduction for
the '"dear people"