Federal Tax Reduction—1928

Report Outline
Corporation and Personal Income Taxes
Amount of 1928 Tax Reduction

Since 1920 the annual expenditures of the federal Government have been reduced by $2,988,505,672. Federal taxes have been reduced in the same period by $2,535,617,232. The reduction in expenditures has amounted to 46.1 per cent and in taxes to 46.9 per cent. Customs revenues meanwhile have increased by $282,597.333 or 87.5 per cent. Counting customs receipts as indirect taxes, the total tax burden, direct and indirect, has been cut by $2,253,019,899 or 41.6 per cent, since 1920.

In 1920 and in each succeeding fiscal year the financial operations of the Government have shown a surplus of receipts over expenditures—permitting the enactment of a general tax reduction bill by each of the last three Congresses. The surplus for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 1927, was the largest on record, totaling $635,809,921. The President and the leaders of both parties in the House and Senate are agreed, therefore, that the enactment of a new tax reduction bill shall be among the first tasks undertaken when the Seventieth Congress meets.

Tax Cuts Proposed for 1928

The House Ways and Means Committee has been summoned to meet October 31 to begin the preparation of a new tax reduction bill. Chairman Green assumes that Congress will not be called to meet in extra session and that one month will afford the Committee sufficient time to complete the bill for introduction when Congress meets in December. Chairman Smoot of the Senate Finance Committee has urged, on the other hand, that a special session be called to permit the final enactment of the bill in advance of March 15, 1928, when the first payments of taxes on incomes received during the present calendar year will come due.