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FULL PROOF RICH STEAL $320,000,000 YEARLY
FROM NATION!
BY BASIL M. MANLY
Noted Economic Investigator
We may now sum up the amount
of income received by persons who
should be subject to the federal in
come tax.
Total national in
come $46,000,000,000
Incomes over $3,000
derived from
Salaries $ 500,000,000
Pees 300,000,000
Property and
business 20,066,000,000
Total $20,866,000,000
Deduct:
Taxes $1,116,000,000
Depreciation 3,330,000,000
Total $4,446,000,000
Net income subject
to tax $16,420,000,000
Now, as we have seen, the law al
lows the exemption from the normal
tax of $3,000 in the case of unmar
ried persons and $4,000 in the case
of married persons. Under this ex
emption we may allow for the deduc
tion of $1,875,000,000, leaving $14,
525,000,000 upon which the normal
tax should be collected. At one per
cent this would yield $1,452,000,000.
It may be noted that income de
rived from dividends upon which the
tax will be paid at the source has
been included above. Ths .has been
done wholly for the sake of conve
nience and clearness and proper al
lowance for the dividends received
by persons subject to the tax upon
individuals will be made when we
come to consider the corporation
tax.
We have now to ascertain the
amount of income which should be
subject to super-tax. This is the
greatest source of loss, not only be
cause the amount evading taxation
is proportionately very great, but be
cause every dollarsubject to the su-j we
per-tax pays from two to seven times
as much tax as it would if subject
only to the normal tax.
We have seen that the income of
persons who should pay income tax
is $16,425,000,000. It is certain that
at least one-half of this amount is
received by persons with incomes
over $20,000 and should therefore
pay a super-tax. As I shall show in
detail in a later article in a large
number of corporations, including
those whose stock is most widely
held, such as the steel corporation,
the Pennsylvania railroad, eta,
which I analyzed for this investiga
tion, the holders of blocks of 1,000
shares and over own $1,202,545,410,
or 50.7 per cent of the $2,368,735,500
outstanding stock of those compa
nies. It seems obvious that persons
owning 1,000 shares in a single cor
poration must have enough other
property to make their incomes
more than $20,000. This is only one
tfiirQ of all property income and in.
estates appraised in New York in
1915 there was a not a single estate,
of less than $350,000, which at 6 per
cent would produce an income of
more than $20,000, in which a block
of 1,000 shares or more in a singe
corporation appeared.
It would seem almost certain,
therefore, that 50 per cent of all cor
porate net earnings goes to persons
with incomes over $20,000. As the
proportion in the case of other prop
erty is probably somewhat less we
will assume that only one-half of the
income from the property held by in
come taxpayers goes to perosns who
should pay the super-tax. This is
only one-third of all property income
and is surely a most conservative
figure. Allowing for all exemptions,
and deductions for taxes and depre
ciation, this would be $8,200,000,000
come taxpayers goes to persons who
should pay the super-tax. From this.
must deduct approximately
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