Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1920 — TAX COLLECTING BILLION BEHIND [ARTICLE]

TAX COLLECTING BILLION BEHIND

Bureau Unable to Audit Returns Under Complex Law, Declares Expert 1917 RETURNSJNCHEGKED Auditing Under Existing Regulations Has Become So Stupendous That the Internal Revenue Bureau Sees No Way Out, \ He Declares. , Washington, Dec. 16.—The Treasury department estimates that “more thi.n $1,000,000,000” Is outstanding in unpaid taxes because of the government’s inability to audit the returns, Dr. Thomas S. Adams of the treasury staff testified at a hearing on taxation before the house ways and means committee. Because of the complex nature of present revenue laws, Doctor Adams added, the internal revenue bureau has been unable to complete the checking up of tax returns for 1917. He saw no immediate hope of making the audit current with the tax roturns filed. Can Bee No Way Out. The task of auditing the tax returns and of tracing evasion and other causes of failure to pay all taxes due, Doctor Adams said, has become so stupendous that the Internal revenue bureau sees no way out at present. He declared he would “thank God if the revenue machinery does not break down in two years under the burden of any addition to its Job of tax collection.”

The treasury representative’s statement was made in connection with an explanation of his attitude in opposition *to a general sales tax. He believed that, while a general sales tax would yield great returns, the administrative burden entailed would be too great to carry. Encounter Snag on War Debt. House ways and mean committeemen have encountered a stumbling block in their efforts to devise a method for disposing of that part of the nation’s war debt maturing In the next two and a half years. Believing that the $4,000,000,000 annual tax levy proposed by the treasury would be insufficient to care for the ordinary operating expenses of the government and to cancel the treasury certificates and Victory notes soon to mature, Chairman Fordney proposed refunding Into long-term bonds the certificates, aggregating nearly $2,500,000,000, and the first issues of War Savings stamps and Victory notes. The proposal of the committee chairman, however, met with the disapproval of Doctor Thomas, who told the committee that the program of the treasury appeared sufficient to provide revenues to take care of the maturing obligation, but who warned that the treasury estimates for taxation could stand no reduction If »the program were to be carried through.