Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1901 — NEW STAMP TAX LAW. [ARTICLE]

NEW STAMP TAX LAW.

Important Changes and Modifications Taking Effect on the First of July.

The stamp tax, to which business has been subjected for more than two years, will be greatly modified by the new revenue law. After July 1 no stamps will be required on telegraph or telephone messages, bank checks, bonds, certificates of deposit, drafts, express receipts, life insurance policies, leases, mortgages, power of attorney, promissory notes, money orders, protests, warehouse re- . ceipts. These are the” articles the tax upon which has been directly borne by the public. Many modifications have been made in the revenue bill which affect the manufacturers. The tax on beer, cigars, tobacco and cigarettes has been reduced. The tax on theaters, billiard tables, public exhibitions, has been retained, but reduced. It is estimated that the government receipts will be reduced from 140,000,000 to $50,000,000 annually by the revision of the revenue act. Bank checks with 2-cent stamps imprinted thereon are being received in large numbers for redemption at the internal revenue bureau. On and after July 1 no stamps will be necessary and the banks, which are loaded with stamped checks, are endeavoring to get rid of the surplus stock. It looks as if there would be a deluge of stamped cheeks pouring in upon the revenue bureau, just as there was in 1883, when rooms and corridors were filled with the accumulations, which came every day by express and mail. It is yet undecided whether the owner of stamped checks will receive them again after be has turned them in for redemption. In 1883 the stamped checks were punched for cancellation and then given back to their original owners, so that they couid be used. At the present time there seems to be a misunderstanding between the auditor of the treasury and the commissioner of the internal revenue as to the course to pursued", the latter believing that the auditor has decided that when a stamped check has been submitted as a voucher for claim it cannot be returned. This does not coincide with the informal statement made by the auditor, and it will probably require an official order from the Secretary of the Treasury to finally settle the matter. The demand for the return of the stamped checks is very emphatic, many business associations having taken the matter up in earnest, and insisting that if the stamped' checks are completely destroyed commercial houses will suffer great loss. The internal revenue bureau is already

preparing for the changes which are ta occur in the stamp law. The general public is most deeply interested in bank check stamps and stamps on telephone and telegraph messages. These are all repealed. All together, stamps are t« be abolished on twenty-six articles, and it is estimated at the internal revenue bureau that the revenues will suffer a reduction aggregating from $40,000,00# to $45,000,000. The latest circular issued by the bureau for the guidance of persons interested in the redemption of stamps states that the latter will be redeemed when presented in quantities of $2 or more faca value, and (*no claim for redemption will be allowed unless presented within two years after the purchase of the stamps from the government' Claims for the redemption of stamps must be prepared in the district where the claimant resides and forwarded by the collector of that district to the internal revenue bureau. The commissioner states that under the law and regulations all stamped instruments and all imprinted checks, drafts and so forth, presented for the redemption of the stamps thereon must, when the stamps are redeemed, be retained with the claim; therefore, no such instruments can be returned to the owners thereof.” But there seems to be a misunderstanding about the matter and it is possible that the checks will be returned. Next to the bankers, the makers of /patent medicines are most widely interested in the repeal of the stamp laws, the tax now being only % of a cent for every 5 cents' worth of value. It is said at the internal revenue bureau that by far the largest proportion of stamped medicines have separate stamps affixed, only about fifty firms having taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the law to' have special stamps prepared’ for their individual use. It has already been decided by the treasury official that if a stamp has been affixed to the proprietary package, it cannot be redeemed. The work of the bureau will therefore be confined! to the redemption of such imprinted labels and separate stamps as have not been' placed upon the package, but even' this will entail a very large amount of extra work. The remaining items upon which the use of stamps has been abolished will not give the internal revenue bureau much trouble, as in nearly every fase the stamps have been attached separately and not imprinted. This is true of certificates of deposit, leases, manifests, mortgages, promissory notes, money orders, warehouse receipts, etc.