Wausau Pilot

WAR REVENUE BILL
The Largest Money Bill in History Submitted to Congress on Thursday

The war revenue bill, as agreed upon in conference and the largest money bill in history, was submitted on Thursday to the house, and it is predicted that it will be adopted without alterations. It is estimated, roughly, that the provisions of the proposed legislation will produce $6,070,000,000 in taxes.

Corporations and individuals with large incomes will be hit hardest, but those who escape paying their part of the war's cost will be few in number, as the provisions make considerable inroads into the incomes of persons with small salaries, and even the customer of a soda water fountain will pay his penny for each ten cent purchase.

The single man, for instance, who paid a tax last year of $40 on an income of $3,000 (his exemption remains at $1,000) will this year face a tax of $120 instead. The married man, taxed on not more than $4,000, will face the same ratio of increase, but his exemption will be $2,000. Men commanding larger salaries will pay 12 per cent on all over $4,000 of his income and be subject to a surtax which increases gradually from 1 per cent as the taxable part of his income mounts above the first $5,000. A man with a net income of $1,000,000 will lose $694,030 of it in personal tax.

These are but a few of the features illustrating the scale on which the provisions of the proposed legislation will reach into the pocketbook of the individual and corporations. So-called luxuries and semi-luxuries are taxed on an average of from 5 to 10 per cent. The old theater admission tax of 10 per cent is retained.

The tax on distilled liquor for beverage purposes jumps to $6.40 a gallon, and the tax on beer to $6 a barrel. Persons renting passenger automobiles must pay taxes of $10 and $20 according to the seating capacity of the cars; billiard and pool parlors pay their homage to the cost of war, and in innumerable ways taxes reach out to confront everyone of the nation's 100,000,000 population. Transportation, telephone and telegraph service are under the tax provisions.

A feature of the bill which will undoubtedly attract much attention, queerly enough, provides for the expenditure of money instead of its collection by tax. This is section 1406, which, as a general proposition, but with certain restrictions, provides for the payment of a bonus of $60 to persons in military or naval service upon his or "her" honorable discharge. The flat $60 rate puts officers and men on the same basis.

Another popular feature of the bill, and one which will provide for reduced governmental earnings is restoration of the 2 cent letter postage rate, effective July 1, 1919, with the additional provision that letters written by soldiers or sailors on overseas duty shall be handled postage free.

The conferees struck out the provision which contained the present second class mail zone rates which are restored to pre-war basis.

The conferees left in the provision which makes the whole District of Columbia bone dry as soon as President Wilson signs the bill. Only the foreign embassies and the legations, which are accorded diplomatic immunity, escape this fate.

The bill provides for taxation of the income of President Wilson and all federal office holders, but does not encroach on the salaries of state officials.

There is a report that an attempt may be made to obtain later a substitute for the luxury tax provision by passage of a joint resolution by congress.

The subject of corporation taxes is bound up in a tangle of technicalities which affect depreciation, amortization, obsolescence and other important provisions which must be determined upon arriving at taxable incomes for 1918 and 1919. The majority of the so-called "relief measures" or "cushions" inserted in the original house draft of the bill by the senate amendments remain in the conference report, but a safeguard against abuse is incorporated in the shape of the most severe penalties for which wilful violation of the spirit of the proposed legislation.

Probably the most generally felt provision will be the one which virtually doubles the federal income tax and makes the married man with an income of $3,000 subject to a $60 tax and the single man to a $120 tax.

The bill has been reported to the house of representatives by the conference committee and such a step usually makes its passage a formality.

One of the new features is the 10 per cent tax on ice cream purchased at soda fountains and on soft drinks. There are numerous taxes on business transactions of all kinds.

The so-called excise tax will hit talking machines and records, sporting goods, cameras, candy, chewing gum, electric fans, thermos bottles and meerschaum pipes.

The luxury tax which is payable at the time the purchase is made, calls for 10 per cent on the following: Carpets and rugs over $5 a square yard, traveling bags over $25, purses and shopping bags over $7.50, portable lamps over $25, umbrellas over $4, women's hats over $15 and men's hats over $5, men's shirts over $3 and a large number of other articles.

Retailers generally believe that certain classes of goods will be hard hit. They are vehement in their denunciation of the measure and believe public sentiment will manifest itself strongly against it.

It is believed that the bookkeeping system which will be necessary for an accurate report will be an involved one and that in general the time and trouble will cost more than the return to the government in cash.