Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1917 — MUST MAKE OWN RETURNS [ARTICLE]

MUST MAKE OWN RETURNS

Law Pats the Barden of Obligation on the Taxpayer. Indianiapolis, December 18, —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 mp these men, who will bo sent into every oounty seat town, and some other towns besides, to meet the people. PosL masters, bankers and newspapers will be able to tell you when the government’s income tax man will be around, and where to find him. He will answer your questions, swear you to the return, take your your money, and remove the wrinkles from your brow. Returns of income tax for 1917 most be made between January 1 and March 1, 1918.

“The government recognizes,’’ Collector of Internal Revenue Kruyer said today, “dhat many persons experience a good deal of jdifficulty in filling outjjncome tax It recognizes, too, that taxpayers resident at points where collector’s offices are not easily accessible find it hard to get proper instruction in the law. Next year, when every married person living with wife or husband and having a net income of $2,000, and every unmarried person not the head of a family and having a net income of SI,OOO 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 divided 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 poss-1 ibly at the city hall. My office will j in due time advise postmasters and j 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 i officer who visits their county will have them.” -y '•]*r j “It may be stated as a matter of j general information that ‘net in- j come’ is the remainder after subtracting expenses from gross income. Personal, family or living expense is not expense in the mean- j ing of the law, the exemption being allowed to cover such expenses. “The new exemptions of SI,OO and s2,f>oo will add tens of thousands to the number of income taxpayers in this district, inasmuch as practically every farmer, merchant, 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 jif an income tax form is not sent, ,or a officer does not jcall, they are relieved from making I report This is decidedly in error. It is the other way round. The

taxpayer has to go to the government and if he doesn’t within the time prescribed, h© is a violator of the law, and the government will go to him with its penalties.”