The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-01-21
THOSE "SIMPLE" TAX RETURNS

THOSE SIMPLE" TAX RETURNS
Talking about those simpler" tax re-
turns which the federal government prom
ised it would exact from harrassed tax pay
ers this year, The Rock Hill, S. c., Herald
says:
Wouldn't it be fine thing if this business OF
levying and computing taxes making tax returns
and paying taxes, could really be simplifed?
s'The average, ordinary citizen cannot see any
good reason why this should not be done
sHe was led to expect at least small step in
this direction when government statement sew
eral weeks ago announced very greatly simpilhed
forms for making returns Of federal income taxes
for payment in 1888
.And along came the forms few days ago with
a few new wrinkles as we'll as some added COM
plexities instead of the smpli6catiOn we had been
led to expect.
"Was somebody trying to play joke on us; or
was it, perhaps, simply that they don't know IN
Washington what it really means to simplify some
thing?
Simple" is the word that should be ap-
piled to deluded tax payers who listen to
and attach Importance to such promises as
that mentioned by The Herald. That prom
Use would match one to lower rates-if one
had ever been made-and, of course, such
a promise has not been made.
Referring again to the promise to sim
plify" tax bookkeeping and tax returns,
we Quote from The Saturday Evening Post:
In 1927 the Curtis Publishing company filed
fourteen tax returns with federal, state and local
governments. 1t cost $3.50 to prepare them.
"In 1887 this company fled about 44,5O0 tax
returns, the cost of preparing which was $1,000.
an 1927 this company filed one tax return in
Canada. In 1887 it filed one return there"
The tax situation as pictured in the fore
going is, as one conservative citizen OF
Hendersonville expressed it on reading the
paragraphs from The Post, IAN outrage
Not only is it an outrage that citizens
of any civilized country should have I'M
posed on them taxation federal, state and
local combined) amounting in some cases
to 65 to S5 per cent. of their income, but it
is also a plain outrage that there should
be imposed on the people of this country
systems of tax levying and computation
which make it necessary for even the larg-
est of the country's business enterprises to
at cost of more than twenty thousand
dollars for the records and clerical labor
involved. -
And in passing let it be reiterated that
this comment is not confined to the plight
Of large enterprises or wealthy individuals
MIXED for around three-fourths of their
income by the tax collectors, but our in
terest extends to the entire population of
the country, especially to small business
men and industrialists.
The total tax bill of the country amounts
to approximately rs per cent of the total
income of the nation. That tax bill milks
every class of citizens of the nation. Di-
reetly or indirectly all get caught beneath
the tax burdens.
In the case of majority of the country's
more than direct taxes. This is the portion
of the population that frequently INDUCES
in merry ha-ha's, as it guilelessly imagines
that the plutocrats pay all the taxes.
By all the rules of common sense, hon
esty and sound economic practices, the tax
situation in this country is shame and
disgrace to any civilized country; but it is
pressing down with particular severity
upon small industries and small business
enterprises. The situation with thousands
of these is chaotic and extremely danger.
ous.i The outlook is that continuance OF
present taxing policies and burdens over q
few years viii baakrnpt and blot cut, q