The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1943-02-26

Income Tax Seems
to be Increasing
Short Term Loans

SMALL LOAN COMPANIES
have been kept working overtime
for the last few weeks, passing
out greenbacks to borrowers who
need them urgently wherewith to
pay the incom tax collector.
II may be that big taxpayers also
are so sorely beset as to have to
seek help from their bankers, but
the comparatively little ones are
the chaps who crowd the offices OF
concerns where advances are made
to reliable citizens in sums gem
orally below a 5000 limit.
When | speak Of comparative
ly' little fellows. use the term
Comparatively" advisedly. They
are alongside guys whose incomes
run into five figures or away
above that.
Nelerthele 5. a man can hold a
position at salary sufficient TO
make him believe himself fairly
prosperous on a middle-class basis,
and yet have quite a few palpita-
tions upon consulting an. internal
reyeue agent and being informed
he's stuck this time for $500 or
5000. II makes the average savings
account look pretty sick TO be
muleted Unexpectedly at so stiff a
rate.
or coourse the victim Of these
levies should have calculated their
pros pective liabilities today. away
in advance OF the required date
for meeting them.
Yet the complications involved
in the job OF filling out one Of to-
days income tax returns are 50
intricate that an ordinary indirid-
ual simply can't handle them. He
has to see a professional.
Assuming that this 9ersonage
will add Up the items very readily
and inform him what he owes with
no delay whatever, he inclines To
postpone his yisit from day to day
until the time for payment is al
most on top OF him. Then he hur.
ries out to inv estigate.
Well. this expert. familiar with
the stunt, does make short work OF
it. 1t is when he announces the
result Of his calculations that the
victim is well advised to have his
smelling salts ready.
BY that juncture. it's too late for
him TO begin saving for the emer-
gency. and the bill, in all proba
bility. is four or five times what he
had anticipated.
That is the signal for MIN TO
hunt a small loan company.
II his credit is Al and he can
prove it, these companies are glad
To get mis- business. Borrowing
from them is decidedly expensive
in the form OF interest rates but
it is not as bad as defaulting on an
income tax payment.
The victim an, to be sure, set
tie with Uncle Sam in quarterly
installments.
The small loan companies reckon
With the possibility that he will
re..liLe his inability to hang onto
enough OF his current income To
meet the governments demands
Oil him in such large chunks-that
he will have TO cut it up into less
substantial morsels.
They have devised a system to
get around this difficulty.
Suppo the citizens tax is $500
for full year.
At that years beginning, II he Is
deemed a satisfactory risk, the
company be patronizes will slip
him 800, as the revenue bureaus
initial due from him. Then for the
succeeding three months, he viii
pay to the company principal and
interest on those loo bucks, in as
small doses as he chooses, provid-
ed they have liquidated the load
at the quarters end. Thereupon he
gets another 500 and the opera
tons repeated, as also at the start
OF and during the third and fourth
quarters.
The arrangement is profitable
from the standpoint OF the small
loan companies, of course, provid-
ed that they are careful to confine
their transactions to thoroughly re-
liable customers.
They want that kind. In fact,
they send out invitations to them,
urgi' them 10 drop in and get
themselves relieved OF their wor-
ries, plus per cent monthly or
thereabouts. The latter is worth
il. though, with an income tax col
lestor camping on your doorstep.
However, making out an income
tax return is worse than paying
the levy.
had occasion recently 10 refer
TO those income tax returns as a
Chinese puzzle.
Then | felt remorse at having
SPOKEN Of such a puzzle in coanec-
ton with our friends. the Chinese,
and corrected il into japanese puz-
zle Thinking this quite a smarty
performance, | mentioned IL TO A