The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-04-16
VETERANS TAX
 A(T pR0vIS0S INTERPRETED
Joint Release by MuIIaney and Rivers Summar-
 izes Application
(Continued Jrons Page One)

Oil d4l dCNl udl DdSlS VIII Uc QtdlJ with on that basis, if they so desire. However, tkey may provide addi- tional records breaking down their I business on a cash basis, and if i they so desire, pay the tax only on money which has actually been received.
 ! "The tax is to be collected by i the Department of Taxation. Ap- 1 propriate forms for making quart . ! erly tax returns will be provided ! by the Tax Commissioner and will be available before the end of the current quarter Although the tax shall be payable at the end of each calendar quarter, it shall not be- come delinquent until one month after expiration of the immediately preceding quarter, beyond which time It shall be delinquent. Penal , ties for delinquency are provided in the Act; also interest at the rate of per cent per annum from due date until paid. Violations are defined as misdemeanors.
 Principal Question
 The principal question raised by business concerns is: May the tax be passed on?" There is nothing in the Act which prohibits business concerns from passing on the tax to the consumers. In this connec- i tion, however, prices cannot be changed in violation of OPA ceil- ings. However, the OPA will allow the tax is be collected if it is col lected as a tax and so designated ! at the time of the transaction. This means that invoices should show the prices charged for the mer- ohandise and then show l percent of same as separate item mark ed Veterans Tax. Cash transac- tions which might or might not involve sales slips should be treat ed in the same manner. It must ! be emphasized that the OPA will net allow any additions over ceil- ings in excess of l percent. There fore, the tax on sales under soc cannot he passed on and the iner- cl.ant must absorb same in such cases. 8s
 However, the breakage point on "a penny is the halfway point. Ac- lcordingly, sales of soc to sl.4e, in- elusive, woud carry the 1c tax, and so on according to the size of the transaction. It must be remem- bered that this is not a consumers sales tax. Therefore, no sales tok- ems representing fractions of a cent are to be made available to CT collected from consumers. It also follows that the Territory has no interest whatsoever in whether the merchant or exporter, etc, ab- sorbs the tax or passes it on. No separate account of tax moneys need be kept as far as the Terri tory is concerned. The OPA's re- quirement as to the keeping Of separate account may be determined by consulting the OPA.
 "The foregoing remarks apply to retail sales. The same principle would apply on wholesale sales made within the Territory The wholesaler in preparing an invoice or monthly statement to the retail CT would show the charge made for the merchandise and an additional item of one-half of one percent for the tax. The retailer would pay said tax to the wholesaler when he remits. Upon sale to the consumer, the retailer, if he chooses to pass on the entire tax, would bill the cus- tcn.er for l 1-2 percent tax. The acerual of the tax not only pyra- mids from one transaction to an other. but so does the process of passing it on.
 Wholesale TransdcticnS
 we now come to the question as to what is wholesale transac- tion as distinguished from retail transaction. The law is well es- tahlished that retail transactions are sales to the ultimate consumer. All transactions in commodities prior to that final sale to con- Isurner are to be classified as whole sale sales. To illustrate: If fish crman sells a boatload of fish to a fish buyer or cannery, that is a wholesale transaction and the rev. enue derived therefrom is taxable at the rate of one-half of one ger lcent. It should also be noted that many business concerns will deal in both kinds of transactions A large grocery may transfer 25 per- cent of goods sold to restaurants, steamship lines, etc. That portion of their sales is wholesale sales, and the remainder of their sales would be retail transactions. The restaurant proprietor is not the ultimate consumer. The ultimate
 consumer is the customer who cats his meal at the restaurant.
 '"The tax on sales to the Federal government cannot be passed on as items in excess of the charge made for the merchandise. No State or Territory has the power to tax
 the Federal government. However
 many large sales to agencies such
 as the Alaska Road Commission