The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-22

adoption and for your own good you might even try to make this book keeping habit retroactive. Dig out all your old receipts and sales slips clear back to Jan. 1, 1942. There might be gold in them thar bills.
 The reason for encouraging your interest in all these figures without sex appeal is simple. It's the new tax bill.
 The light has undoubtedly dawned on you that this new tax bill is something extra, but you probably haven't realized what a penetrating and soul-pocketbook- and piggy bank -searcher this new light is. It won't just brighten the corner where you are-it will burn you up and 1t will leave scar tissue on a lot of citizens who have never been scorched by income tax before. 2S MILLION WILL PAY
 On 194l income, 28 million good citizens had to file returns. though only about IS million paid federal income tax. On this years income, however, the new tax bill will re- Quire some 32 million people to file returns and taxes will be collected from perhaps 28 million of them.
 Four million people who have never had to worry about filling in 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 fork ing over. Tn recruiting all this new tax-paying talent, Uncle Sam will be putting the finger on lot of citizens who have never kept books. Small farmers, for instance, ped dlers and lot of Joe and Jane wage -earners. Any single person taking in more than $9.62 per week, any married person getting more than $2308 per week. That's dip ping pretty well down toward the bottom of the barrel to find pay dirt, but the Victory tax of 1943 wiil 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 only minimum of cents or 6 cents out of every taxable dollar you earn, is now about to take a minimum of 19 cents of every dollar you earn above the personal ex- emption figures of $500 a year for the unmarried, $l2o0 a year for the married. Six cents of this 19 cents cents will be normal income tax. The other B cents will be surtax. For incomes over $5 million, the tax is 83 cents per $l.
 SOME WAYS TO SAVE
 So 1t is important to you to take advantage of every deduction you can possibly list. With minimum 1o per cent federal income tax on every taxable dollar, for every $5 you can deduct from your taxable income you are saving yourself 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 accident in- surance.
 Keep track of all the money de- ducted from your pay envelope aft CT Jan. 1. 1943, for the Victory tax which will probably be 5 per cent of all your earning over $625 year
 Keep track of all the money you pay out on insurance policies in force before Sept. 1, 1922.
 Keep track of all the money you pay out on debts which you owed on Sept. l. 1922.
 Keep track of all the interest you pay on debts.
 Keep track of all the money you pay out or have deducted 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 money you pay is deductible. Watch the sales taxes and federal excise taxes on transportation, furs, 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 youl charities. Dimes given to par. handlers don't count.
 But the panhandlers, If they gros! more than $500 a year, will have tC file tax returns and they should therefore keep books, too.