Evening star., 1938-09-11

the report now is being written. While
he could not reveal details of the re-
port, DR.. Pond indicated that separate
chapters OF the tentative findings
would deal with real estate, personal
property taxes. including the automo-
bile personal property levies and the
franchise or gross earnings or gross
receipts taxes levied in lieu Of personal
property taxes; the two-year expert
ment with the business privilege levy;
the alcoholic beverage taxes; the mo-
tor vehicle and gasoline taxes; the
insurance taxes and the inheritance
and estates taxes, now beginning to
produce revenues in keeping with the
1887 and 1888 Revenue Acts.
Changes suggested by the technical
examinations of existing levies may be
outlined in these chapters, but decis-
ions on any sweeping revisions will be
reserved for later phases of the Sur
vey, DR.. Pond said.
The tax experts now are working
on the second major phase of their
survey, and herein is involved some
thing of departure in an approach
to the District tax problem. It is
planned to arrive at a comparative
statement as to the proportion of the
total revenue provided by the various
existing taxes, in relation to the pro-
portions borne by such sources in other
tax Jurisdictions.
In the report of the Jacobs Com
mittee on Fiscal Relations, a mass of
data was used to compare District
taxes and tax rates on a per capita
basis with such data on various States
and cities. DR.. Pond is having collected
data designed to permit a showing
of what portion of District revenue
costs are borne by real estate owners
business operators, personal property
holders, motor vehicle owners and
other separate groups Of taxpayers, as
compared with the situation in other
States or other tax Jurisdictions.
To Be Valuable Guide.
DR.. Pond made clear he did not
believe such comparisons should be
taken to indicate necessarily whether
any individual District levy should
be raised or lowered, but that such
data would be valuable otherwise as
general guide. Such comparisons
may be made with a selected num-
ber of States, or with all or nearly
all States, although DR.. Pond ex-
planned that it was apparent that the
Districts economic situation is not
comparable with that Of many States,
particularly with those in agrarian
areas. The effort. he said, would be
to give particular attention to those
States whose economic situation was
most nearly comparable to that of
the District At the same time, he
recognized that the District is- in a
class by itself, being small, compact
jurisdiction, almost exclusively urban
and built up.
In such comparative study the
District would be treated as state"
and the data on the States would
treat them as single tax jurisdictions,
including State. county and city tax
alton.
believe this study will be OF value
as a general indication Of the pre-
vailing tax notions" said DR.. Pond.
While not necessarily conclusive, 1t
should indicate where the District
stands in the various proportions of
the tax burden borne by various classes
Of taxpayers.
From the Commissioners the sur
vey experts expect to receive consid-
cradle data on the prospective size Of
the budgets for the District during the
next five years. 1t is likely also that
before the report is drafted in final
form the group will have the conf
Dental use of the actions by the
Budget Bureau on the 1910 estimates
The report is expected to be COM
pleted some time in December, since
the Joint Committee on Internal
Revenue Taxation is directed to have
its report ready for congressional con-
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