Evening star., 1943-04-30
Treasury lndorses
Committee Tax Bill
As Great Help 10 All
House Debote to Open
Next Week on Measure
For Current Payments
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
Secretary of the Treasury
Morgenthau indorses the pay-as-
you-go income tax bill of the
House Ways and Means Commit
tee as a great help for both the
taxpayer and his Government.
Randolph Paul, general counsel,
said yesterday that if Congress en-
acts the bill by May Is, the Treas
ury would do its utmost to put the
pay-as-you-go plan into effect by
July l. Previously the Treasury had
said it would take 60 days to get
such a system rolling.
The committee bill would reduce
the 1912 tax to 1941 levels of rates
and exemptions and give the tax
payer three years to pay it off while
disposing of his current tax bills,
Debate Opens Next Week.
These current bills would be taken
care of by a Withholding tax of 20
per cent, after exemptions, applied
on wages and salaries. The with
holding tax would begin July l and
the March and June income tax
payments made this year would be
treated as current payments of 1943
income tax.
The House Is to begin debate on
the committee bill next week, but
Republicans have made plain they
intend to offer amendments along
the line of the modified Ruml plan
to skip whole year in getting in
come taxpayers on pay-as-you-go
basis.
In relaying word that Mr.. Nor
genthau, who is now in Texas,
fully supports" the committee plan
Mr. Paul said it would supply about
So, ,0O0, 900, 900 of the $4,000, 900 900
additional revenue President Roose
welt has asked
A Treasury statement said that if
the bill becomes law, American
taxpayers will be paying their in
come taxes currently before the
end of 1943."
Representative KnutSon (Repub-
lican of Minnesota took quick ex-
ception to that, saying that they
are either trying deliberately to mis-
lead the public and the Congress
or else they, themselves, have been
grossly misinformed"
Flays Treasury Claims.
Mr.. Knutson told reporters that
not even Chairman Doughton OF
the Ways and Means Committe
claims that his bill will get anyone
current by the end of this year, ex-
cept persons who never paid taxes
until last month" He added:
The Doughton bill abates but
"a, 400, 900 ,0OG of the 1912 tax liability
and requires that the unabated S.
400 OO0,0 900 be paid by 1916, or a
spread of three years in which to
make these additional unabated tax
payments. Until these additional
tax payments are made, nobody will
be current and the Messrs. Morgen-
thau and Paul we'll know it."
Ia oAAc OPA1AlOIl VI lilC 1IcdSuIy,
its statement said, "the committee
bill will max. income taxes far
easier to pay. At the same time it
will strengthen the Federal revenue
system. 1t will fit tax payment di-
rectly into the budgets of the mil
lions of small income recipients.
Taxes will rise and fall as income
rises and falls from week to week
and month to month and will stop
when income stops.
by providing a true pay-as-you-
go system, the bill will bring in rev.
enue more certainly and more
promptly, thus helping to curb in
f1ation. Without excessive doubling
up and without permitting unde-
served windfalls, the committee bill
will definitely improve the tax sys-
tenn for both the taxpayer and the