Evening star., 1944-01-17
Senate Tax Chiefs
Seek 10 Ease Fight
Over Renegotiation
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The Senate Finance Com
mittee sought today to smooth
away sharp differences over the
future scope Of war contract re-
negotiations, urged by President
Roosevelt as a curb on eXorbi-
tant war profits.
Chairman George said the COM
mittee would seek some sort OF COM
promise acceptable to administration
Senators who oppose an attempt to
narrow the power of the Army and
Navy to revise war contracts and
strip them of profits which they
consider unreasonable.
The explosive subject was kept of
the Senate floor by agreement last
week, but 1t is scheduled to be taken
up as soon as work is finished on
other phases Of A s2,s15, SOC, 900 tax
bill.
Opponents declared the commits
tees amendments would weaken the
contract renesutiatloa law BY at
tempting to prevent a reaadit os
purchases Of standard commercial
articles, They said that would ex-
empt from renegotiation vast pur-
chases made by the armed services
for military supplies,
Expiration Date Sought.
Senate leaders said they under
stood some members of the commit
tee would insist on fixing a date for
the end Of all renegotiations. Army
and Navy witnesses opposed a fixed
termination date. u,
President Roosevelt included ex-
tension of the contrac. renegotiation
law IN the five-point legislative pro-
gram he outlined to Congress last
week as the administrators plan for
economic stabilization. The Treasury
estimated recently that several bill
lion dollars in excess war profits
have been recaptured from private
contractors through Army and Navy
renegotiations.
A series of technical amendments
slowed the Senate's progress on the
new revenue bill, but no attempt
has been made so far to expand it
to meet the realistic tax law" de-
mandS of the President. Senator
George has said repeatedly the bill
gets in about all the additional taxes
the country can afford to pay.
Agree on Simpler Laws.
The administration and Congress
found one area of agreement, jointly
calling for a general overhauling OF
tax laws to make them really simple
Republicans and Democrats alike
responded to the public clamor
against the intricacy of the income
tax returns that must be filed on
or before March Is by about 50,OOO,-
600 persons.
Representative Robertson, Demo-
crat, of Virginia, member of the tax
drafting House Ways and Means
Committee, proposed definite pro-
gram for simplification, which he
said would collect currently the
total tax of approximately 0OOO, 600
persons and relieve that number of
having to file any returns at all
after this year.
\ Would Merge Levies.
The Virginian's program would:
l. Merge the Victory tax, the nor
NAL tax and the surtax into one
minimum rate, to be collected fully
at the source from wages and sala-
ries through the medium of with
holding by the EMPLOYER.
2. Reduce the amount of that
rate, and necessarily the amount to
be withheld, by computing the mini
mum rate against a new taxable
income to be arrived at by deducting
from gross income those items of
expense incurred in earning the
income, plus family status exemp-
tions. and nothing more.
In swift, bipartisan DEVELOPMENTS
toward overhauling the tax laws,
Chairman Deughton has docketed
"slmpliflcation" as the No. l job for
the Ways and Means Committee in
1914, Representative Carlson, Re-
publican, of Kansas led off with a
slmpliflcation proposal, a confer
ence of House Republicans called
for an overhauling, and Randolph
Paul, Treasury Department general
counsel, said Citizen Joe Doakes
wants tax laws so simple that they
read like pill advertisement"
The various statements, by men,
bers of Congress and by the Treas
ury representative, were accepted on
Capitol Hill as promising a unity of
purpose between the administration
and Congress in a concerted drive
to take higher mathematics out of
tax computations.
However, there is no prospect that
simplification law can be enacted
in time to affect the returns due
March Is.