The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-24

years taxes are sssNAsSz repassed in this | RAaem new family
 treasure, and the total estimated yield of old and new taxes is $lS.e billion, Or, If you want to get reckless the way Congress does every now and then and ap- propriate another $lo0 million out Of your sock just to get 0 round number, call It's Q $lA billion pet, and let 1t go at that.
 Anyway, the precious thing has been five months in the making. The House Ways and Means Com mittee began its hearing April 17. It presented the draft of It's bill to the full House three months later. It was passed by the House and sent to the Senate on August 5. The Sen- ate Committee on Finance then held It's own hearings, and was ready to report 6 revised version of the Dill September 2. Then two weeks more were required for the senate to pass the bill, send 1t back to the House for conference and get final passage.
 COLLECT
 QUICKLY
 But when 1t comes to putting one Of these sweet patootieS into effect, don't think for e minute that there will be five months delay Oh, no. The first income taxes under the new and greatly increased rates wont be collectible till March l5, i042, or about six months of, but the tax collector men will begin putting the touch on you for all those nuisance and excise taxes be- ginning October 1. And that's where the headaches of the internal rev. enue collectors begin. They're all sit- ting up nights. now, figuring how they're going to apply the knife for that extra pound of defense tax flesh.
 Some of the new excise taxes the internal revenue collectors have had past experience with, SO they know how to 90 about setting up rnaehin- cry to make those collections. Jew clry and furs, for instance, They have been taxes before, though not In recent years. Collecting those re- tailers' taxes Is comparatively easy. Amusement taxes on theaters, cabarets, and the like are merely hiked, 50 there Is no particular prob lem there. That goes for the in- creased liquor, radio set, automo- bile and similar taxes.
 Where the real grief comes in is in collecting some of the new manu- facturers' excise taxes. Matches, nnu- sical instruments, sporting goods, luggage, electric signs, business and store machines, rubber articles, on- tical equipment and electric light bulbs. None of those have been taxed before, and procedure must be worked out to keep books and collect the taxes at the establishments of all manufacturers and importers. All these will be hidden taxes. The wholesaler and the retailer and the consumer won't be conscious of pay ing Q tax on these Items, though the new taxes on them can only mean that the prices will be increased. If this tax Is pyramided through the wholesale and retail establishments, It can only mean increased cost of living.
 The other thing 1t means is that the Internal Revenue Department must hire more men and increase its cost of tax collecting machinery. To collect the federal internal revenue in the fiscal year ending June 90, l04i, took the services of 20,585 fed- eral employees, and the total cost of collecting the federal taxes was $65,- 063, ,T23, That was an up of more than 6,i00 employees and an up of $5 million in the costs of collection over the previous year ending June 30, l940, when the total tax collections were $5.34 billion. You can easily expect, therefore, that the costs of collecting the new $l3.9 or $i4 bil- lion tax bill will run proportionate- fly.
 IS MILLION
 TO PAY
 One of the big increases in tax collecting costs wsll come from the lowering of the personal exemptions l WACh tAAC CACAAAPVAOAAo WCAO ASWCASNA last year, from $l,000 to $500 for single persons, and from $2,500 to $2,000 for married persons, internal revenue had to add 2000 field em- iployes to make the collections from the new taxpayers. Now, with the exemptions lowered again for next year to $750 and $50, there will be nearly five million more returns filed, bringing the total number oi actual income taxpayers to approxi- mately 13 million, or about one fed eral income taxpayer to every 1C Ipeople.
 For the past two years. the aver. age cost to the federal government in collecting each $l00 in taxes haI been SLIP. If that figure holdi good for teh coming fiscal year. and bit may be lower, the cost of collect ing this $l4 billion in prospective taxes will be more than si60 mil lion. That's equal to two new cruisers, right there.
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