The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1941-06-26

The Senate passed week ago and
sent to the House a joint resolution
providing a method for refund of hog
processing taxes by hog raisers and
producers under the old Agricultural
Adjustment act which the Supreme
Court held invalid. Senate action was
unanimous, but the resolution faces
tough going in the House because the
administration opposes it and the Ag-
riculture committee, is fairly well
loaded with Democrats from the cot
ton states who are not interested.
Senator Chan Quincy of South Da-
kota introduced the resolution in the
Senate, as he did two years ago. At
that time the Senate approved it unan-
imously. The House Agriculture COM
mittee also at first approved it in
1885, but later reconsidered under Ad-
ministration pressure and voted it
down, Is to IL.
You will recall that the hog pro-
cessing tax became effective November
S, 1888 at so cents per hundredweight,
live weight. On December /, 1888, it
was increased to 81 per hundredweight,
on February 1, 1884, to $3.50 and on
March /, 1884 to $2.25 per hundred
weight. and remained at that level
until Jnauary 6, 1886, when the tax
was held invalid.
During that period, 1851 100000 of
taxes were paid, $26,12400O in Min
nesota. one of the largest hog pro-
ducing states. The professors have
collected refunds on some 20 or 80
millions of taxes which they paid on
their floor stocks and some part of
the taxes which they were able to
prove they had paid.
But the courts have found and the
Treasury and Agriculture have also
found after investigation that in most
instances nearly the entire processing
tax was in fact paid by the hog pro-
Queer in that it was deducted from the
price paid him for his hogs when they
were marketed.
Reason the producer has been I'M
able to collect refunds to date is be-
cause the Internal Revenue bureau has
held, and been sustained in its conten-
ton, that it could not entertain petit
ton for refund from producer be-
cause he did not pay it to the govern
ment and under existing statutes, the
producer cannot petition for refund
Senator Gurney's resolution simply
provides that the Internal Revenue
bureau shall receive and consider such
petitions from producers for refunds
and sets up formula for determine
ton of the amount of tax paid by
the producer. This formula assumes
normal spread of IS cents per hun
dredweight between the hundredweight
price of live hogs at Chicago and the
wholesale price of hog products de-
rived from 100 pounds of live hogs.
Under the formula, if the spread
equalled or exceeded the tax in effect
at the time plus IS cents, the producer
would be entitled to the full refund
If the spread were less than the tax
plus IS cents, the producer would be
entitled to only that part of the tax
included in the spread.
This formula is based on the findings
by the Internal Revenue bureau and
the Department of Agriculture in a
brochure in 1897 to the effect that
the processing tax was not passed on
to consumers or paid by professors
except in part, but was paid by pro-
ducers.
Producers would have twelve months
in which to file refund claims under
the resolution and eighteen months in
which to submit proof of such claims,
with receipt or account records of hog
sales accepted as evidence.