Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1918 — MANY ESCAPING TAXES ON AUTOMOBILES [ARTICLE]

MANY ESCAPING TAXES ON AUTOMOBILES

The state board of tax commissioners has begun actively a campaign to insure that Hoosiers owning automobiles report them for taxation. Figures, just made public by the board shows that while a total of 212,900 autos have been licensed by the secretary of state, only 103,612 have been reported for taxation, according to reports from all the counties. The county assessors throughout the state hereafter will be responsible for the reporting of all autos owned in the county. In case the township assessors fail to list the autos, county assessors have been instructed by the board to report the township officials to the respective prosecuting attorney, who has jurisdiction and in case the prosecuting attorney fails to take action in such cases, the county assessor will report facta in such cases to the state board, which will, in turn, report them to the attorney-general, for action against local prosecutors. Not only, t oautomobiles will the ruling apply, but to all classes of property, where such glaring tax dodging as is apparent concerning the autos, is found to exist. The attention of the state board has 'been centered on the auto tax dodging situation in Indiana for some time and is having prepared a complete list, by counties, of all autos owned in Indiana and when comparisons are made with the numbers of autos listed for taxation in each county, officials will be notified to see that the dodging of such taxes is stopped at once. With reports from seven counties including Marion county, missing the board has pointed out that Allen county leads the state in the total number of autos listed for taxation, with 4,834. Elkhart county comes next with 3,403. Vanderburg county is listed as having only 569 autos for taxation, while other counties are far belovr what is believed to be the actual total ownership of autos. Jasper county has 1,220, Newton 1,172, Benton 1,320, and Pulaski 1,012. * Ed Kanne, one of our leading threshermen, reports that he has just finished his first job this summer. He threshed the wheat raised by Henry Asmler on eighty .acres .which yielded 2,330 bushels.