Imperial Valley press., 1942-10-23
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

a personal budget and start keeping
books on every dollar you earn anC
every cent you spend"
In giving you this free advice
the only thing, by the way, thai
you'll get free from the govern
ment as long as the war lasts-it
isn't the intention to warn you 'tC
make a New Years resolution to
make a budget and keeps books in
l943 The warning is for imme-
diate adoption. and for your own
good you might even try to make
the bookkeeping habit retroactive
Dig out all your old receipts and
sales slips clear back to January /,
1912. There might be gold in
them thar bills.
your interest in all these figures
without sex appeal is simple. It's
the new tax bill.
The light has undoubtedly dawn
/ ed on you that tbs new tax bill is
| something extra, but you probably
haven't realized what a penetrating
and -pocketbook- k-and-piggy-
bank-searcher this new light is. 1t
won't just brighten the corner
where you are-it will burn you
up and it will leave scar tissue on
a lot of citizens who have never
been scorched by income tax be-
fore.
% MILLION WILL PAY
On 1941 income, % million good
citizens had to file returns, though
only about 18 million paid federal
income tax. On this years in
come, however, the new tax bill
will require some 80 million people
to file returns and taxes will be
collected from perhaps c8 million of
them.
Four million people who have
never had to worry about filing
i'm an income tax form will have
that pleasure by March Is, 1943.
And 10 million people who have
never paid income taxes before
will begin fOrking over. In re-
cruiting all this new tax-paying
talent, Uncle Sam will be putting
the finger on a lot of citizens
who have never kept books.
Small farmers, for instance, ped
dlers, and a lot of Joe and Jane
wage -earners. Any single person
taking i'm more than 1892 per
week, any married person getting
more than S23.08 per week. That's
dipping pretty well down toward
the bottom of the barrel to find
pay dirt, but the Victory tax of
l943 will go even deeper.
The Importance of having all
people earning more than these
minimum wages keep books comes
from two principal reasons.
The first is that your Uncle Sam
uel, instead of being content with
cnly a minimum of 4 cents or g
cents out of every taxable dollar
YOU earn. is now about to take a
| minimum of l9 cents of every dol
lar you earn above the personal
exemption figures of $500 a year
for the unmarried, $1,000 a year
for the married. Six cents of this
10 cents will be normal income tax.
The other 13 cents will be surtaX.
For incomes over SIS million, the tax
is 83 cents per 81.
SOME WAYS TO SAVE
So it is important to you to take
advantage of every deduction you
can possibly list With a minimum
of l9 per cent federal income tax
on every taxable dollar, for every
| S. YOU can deduct from your tax
able income you are saving your
self a minimum of 95 cents, which
is not an unimportant saving.
The items to keep track of are
rather numerous. Among the more
important are
Keep track of all your doctor
bills and your health and acci-
dent insurance.
Keep track of all the money de-
Quoted from your pay envelope
after January l, 1943, for the
Victory tax, which will probably
be ) per cent of all your earn
ings over 1924 a year.
Keep track of all the money
you pay out on insurance poll
cies in force before September
l, 1912.
Keep track of all the money you
f Day OuJ VI IldfC dCduNbCO 4IOlii
your pay envelope for the purchase
of war savings stamps and bonds.
Keep track of every penny you
pay out for taxes. You can't de-
duct your income taxes, but nearly
every other bit of direct tax mon
ey you pay is deductable. Watch the
sales tax and federal excise taxes
en- transportation, fltrs, jewelry,
etc, particularly.
Keep track of all your contribu-
tions, to the church and to estab-
lished charity and welfare organi-
cations. Get receipts for your char
tiles. Dimes given to panhandlers
! don't count.
But the panhandlers, if they gross
more than $500 year, will have TO
file tax returns and they should
therefore keep books, too.