Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 282, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1917 — Government Men Will Help You Figure Your Tax [ARTICLE]

Government Men Will Help You Figure Your Tax

You won’t have to figure out your own income tax all by yourself hereafter. The government is going to send out men to help you. It will be up to you to hunt up these men, who will be sent into every county seat town, and some other towns -besides, to meet the people. Postmasters, bankers, and newspapers will be able to tell you just when the government’s income tax man »will be around, and where to find h:m. He will answer your questions, swear you to the return, take your money, and remove the wrinkles from your brow. Returns of income *ax for 1917 must be made between January 1 and March 2 1918.

“The Government recognizes,” Collector of Internal Revenue Kruyger said today, “that many persons experience a good deal of difficulty in filling out income tax forms It recognizes too, that taxpayers resident at points where collector’s offices are not easily accessible find it is hard to get proper instruction in the law. Next year, when every married person lb ing with wife or husband and having a net income of $2,000, and every unmarried person not the head of a family ar d having a net income of $1,0)0 for the year 1917, must make return of income on the form prescribed. There will be hundreds in every community seeking light on the law, and help in executing their returns. My own and every other collection : district in the nation will be dividled into districts, with the county as the unit, and a government officer informed in the income tax assigned to each district. He will spend hardly less than a week in each county, and in some counties 'a longer time, very likely in the, court house at the county seat town. In cities where there are collector’s branch offices, he will be there, and in other cities possibly at the city hall. My office will in due time ad- ! vise postmasters and bankers and send out notices to the newspapers stating when the officer will be in each county. It will be unnecessary

for prospective taxpayers to ask my office for forms on which to make returns. The officer who visits their county will have them. “It may be stated as a matter of general information that ‘net income’ is the remainder after subtracting expenses from gross income. Personal, family, or living expense is not expense in the meaning of the law, the exemption being allowed to cover such expenses. “The new exemptions of SI,OOO and $2,000 will add tens of thousands to the number of income taxpayers in this district, inasmuch as practically every farmer, merchant, tradesman, professional man and salary worker and a great many wage workers will be required to make return and pay tax. “The law makes it the duty of the taxpayer to seek out the collector. Many people assume that if an income tax form is not sent, or a government officer does not call, they are releived from making report. This is decidedly an error. It is the other way round. The taxpayer has to go to the government and if he doesn’t within the time prescribed, he is a violator • of the law, and the government will go to him with its penalties.”