The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-27

ton. These people who have to pay Victory taxes won't have to fill out returns until 1944, though the money will be collected in 1943.
 The Bureau of Internal Revenue, meaning the Treasury, had no ex- perience in collecting anything like this Victory tax, but the Treasury has whole year in which to get out the bugs, for though the money starts coming in when the employers remit for the first quarter of 1943, the money won't be accounted for till the Victory taxpayers file their returns in 1944.
 By that time the Victory tax payer may have changed jobs twice, forgotten how much he earned and how much was deducted from his pay envelope by each employer, lost oil track of what credits he is en- titled to for purchase of war bonds and stamps. The resulting confusion may be rather terrible, but the In- ternal Revenue boys figure they'll get it all strengthened out somehow before the deadline. COLLECTION COSTS
 The estimates of $2 billion from Victory tax and $8 billion from income taxes for 1943 are net that is, the amount the government will get after the costs of collecting the taxes have been deducted. No official estimates have as yet been made as to what all these costs of collection will be, but fair guess is that they will come close to $50 million. This figures at BOG to collect every $100 in tax revenue.
 The history of the costs of collect ing the federal tax dollar gives a pretty good picture of the country'S financial prosperity. Back in 1866 after the Civil War, when the coun- try was pretty well shot, it cost $2.47 to collect $100 in taxes. The cost gradually went down until the income tax law first went into effect in 1912, when the cost of collecting $1OO was $1.71. This figure declined to 33c in 1918.
 This was an all-time low, and it can be explained by the fact that the tax collections were extremely heavy in the war years. The ex- act reverse of that situation de- veloped in 1882 at the depth of the depression when tax collections were low and the costs of collecting each $100 rose to $2.17.
 Since 1892 the costs of tax col lecting have been declining grad ually. In 194a with total tax col lections of over ST billion, the costs of collecting were $65 million, ol about 89c on the $100. In 1942, with collections of SIS billion, costs were STA million, or SIC per $100. In spite of the innovation of the new 5 pei cent Victory tax on wages. Treasury experts believe that 1943 costs o1 tax collection will be held down though the real test of that vii come in 1944 when all these Victory tax returns have to be filed anc examined.
 REVENUE EMPLOYES
 Back in 1866 there were abou 44OO employees 1n the federal govern ment's tax department. In 1912, il spite of the introduction of thu federal income tax, the numbel of employees in the Bureau of In ternal Revenue was only 4000, bu by 1918 it had risen to $500 becaus' of the problems presented by tn war taxes. In 1892 the number o employees was 11,70O, in 1941 it wa 27,000 and today it is about 30,0OC
 The next tax laws provisions require that all tax forms will hay to be revised, and because of tn late date of passage, the printinl presses will have to grind day ant night from now until the job is done some time during the first quarte of 1943. An estimated 32 million in come tax returns will be filed befor March Is, 1943, but that means tha nearly POO million tax forms vii have to be printed, to provide tn necessary duplicates, incorrectly flle' returns and false starts.