Shares in Tax Relief

Report Outline
Issues in Pending Revenue Legislation
Tax Relief to Encourage Investment
Resistance to Tax Relief for Stockholders
Tax Relief to Bolster Consumption
Special Focus

Issues in Pending Revenue Legislation

A series of decisions to be taken in Congress during the next few weeks will go a long way toward determining both the total amount of federal tax relief to be granted during this election year and its distribution among various classes of taxpayers. The House of Representatives has already voted a $912 million reduction in excise taxes and final enactment of this measure—perhaps with larger cuts—is expected before Apr. 1. A separate bill generally revising the internal revenue code and affording additional tax relief of about $1.4 billion is scheduled for House action in the immediate future.

A third tax relief bill at the present session is a distinct possibility. President Eisenhower said, Feb. 17, that one of the first measures to be considered if employment did not pick up in March would be a further lowering of individual income taxes to expand consumer purchasing power. However, in a radio-television address, Mar. 15, the President said present economic conditions did not call for an emergency program “that would justify larger federal deficits and further inflation through large additional tax reductions at this time.”

Conflicting Party Proposals for Tax Relief

Still to be resolved by House and Senate action on the general tax revision bill is the question whether the tax relief afforded by that measure is to go primarily to business and investors, as a means of stimulating production, or primarily to individual taxpayers, as a means of stimulating consumption.