Fort Mill Times

COLLECTS $45.50 ON CIGARETTES.
"Smokes" for Personal Use Subject to Tax, Agent Holds.

Something new in the way of collections in this section under the South Carolina commodity tax law occurred in Fort Mill last Friday morning when J. C. Todd, representative of the State tax commission, was handed a check by E. S. Parks for $45.80 in payment of a claim Mr. Todd said the State had against Mr. Parks for his failure to place revenue stamps on cigarettes he had bought for his own consumption over a period of several years.

Friday morning Mr. Todd entered the store of which Mr. Parks is manager and noted a carton containing cigarettes which did not bear State revenue stamps. He asked Mr. Parks why he had failed to put stamps on the cigarettes. Mr. Parks replied that he had bought the cigarettes in Charlotte, N. C., for his own consumption and under the law, as it had been explained to him by another agent of the tax commission, he was not required to stamp them.

Mr. Todd said his construction of the law was that whether cigarettes were for personal consumption or for sale, the tax had to be paid on them and the stamps attached to the individual packages. In reply to this Mr. Parks said he had never paid the tax on cigarettes he had bought for his own use.

"In that event," Mr. Todd observed, "you owe the State the tax on every package of cigarettes you have smoked without placing the stamps since the law went into effect several years ago."

He then asked Mr. Parks how many cigarettes he smoked a month and Mr. Parks told him. Thereupon Mr. Todd figured up the State's claim against Mr. Parks as $45.80, to cover which he was given a check, remarking that if Mr. Parks was dissatisfied with the adjustment he could appeal to the State tax commission for relief.

Since the South Carolina stamp tax law went into effect it has been the custom of numerous Fort Mill smokers to buy their cigarettes in Charlotte. None of these, so far as The Times is informed, have placed the revenue stamps on the cigarettes, all doubtless being under the impression that cigarettes bought outside the State for personal consumption were not subject to the tax.

The incident called forth some unfavorable comment on the work of the State tax commission, one man saying that he thought the candidates for governor who had said they were opposed to the tax commission should know of it. "I'll bet all I've got," he added, "that the incident would be used to further convince the people that the commission is an arbitrary body which often does things without rhyme or reason."