Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1886 — INTERNAL TAXES. [ARTICLE]

INTERNAL TAXES.

Report of the Operations of the Internal Revenue bureau for the ';; :y Past'Year. * - " The Commissioner of Internal Revenue has submitted his annual report to tbe Secretary of the Treasury. Tho total receipts from all sources of tuarnal-revenne taxation for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1880, were $110,902,809, an ’increase ovor the previous year of 4.481,748. The principal increase was inaigats, cigarettes, and spirits distilled from grain. The cost of collection daring the year was $4,299,485, being about 3.0 per cent, of the amount collected, against $4,455,430, or about 3.9 per cent, for the previous ye ir. It is estimated that $118,000,000 will be collected during tho current fiscal year. The number of illicit stills seized was 154, and 1,214 persons arrested therein. The seizures were principally in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. The estimated expenses for the next fiscal year are $4,236,4-10, of whic h $1,900,000 is for salaries and expenses of revenue agents, surveyors, gaugers, store-keepers, etc., and $266,440 for salaries of ofticers aud employes of the Commissioner’s office, which includes an appropriation fer an additional chief of division and increase of force rendered necessary by the oleomargarine law. The number of stamps issued during the year was 550,061,029, and their value $135,112,305. The production account shows an increase in manufactured tobacco of 10,798,280 pounds; in the number of cigars and cigarette 5,433,507,247; i u tobacco exported, 29,369,220. The number of cigars imported was 73,139,078, and the value of manufactured tobacco imported was $68,939. The amount of 'direct taxes still due is $2,568,929. The number of distilleries registered was 6,422, and the number operated 6,031, of which 5,075 were fruit distilleries. The total spiritproducing capacity of grain and molasses distilleries in operation Sept. 1 wa5J188,747 gallons per day. ‘The total production of spirits during the year was 80,344,320 gallons, and T 9,195,332 bushels of grain were used. There were 868 violations of revenue laws reported during the year, for which 637 persons were arrested. The Commissioner recommends that the principle of taxation which applies to all other articles taxed under internal revenue laws be made to apply to distilled spirits. He also calls attention to the necessity of legislation to remove the present discrimination against retail liquor dealers in the matter of penalties of fine and imprisonment for doing business without payment of the required special tax, and the urgent necessity for the passage of the bill to amend the Revised Statutes by repealing the Section allowing collectors of internal revenue commissions on taxes collected on distilled spirits. '