Federal Tax Reduction-1930

Report Outline
Taxes on Corporation and Personal Incomes
Repeal and Reduction of Miscellaneous Taxes
Special Focus

The revenues of the federal government from all sources during the first quarter of the fiscal year 1930 showed an increase of $128,959,835 over the revenues of the corresponding three months of the fiscal year of 1929. As a partial offset to this increase in revenues, there was an increase of $33,416,627 In the general expenditures of the government. Outlays for public debt retirement, interest, and various special purposes were smaller this year than during the first quarter of the last fiscal year, but leaving these out of account, the difference between the increase in the government's expenditures and the increase in its revenues was $95,543,208.

The government's operations during the full twelve months of the last fiscal year resulted in a surplus at the end of the year of $184,787,035. This was the smallest surplus of any year since 1921. However, on the next to the last day of the year there was paid to the railroads by the Treasury the $52,000,000 awarded by the Interstate” Commerce Commission in February, 1929, as back pay for transportation of the mails between 1925 and 1928. This item was not incurred during the fiscal year in which it was paid. If paid during the years in which the service was rendered, it would have reduced the surpluses for those fiscal years, and the surplus for the fiscal year 1929 would have been more than $235,000,000.

Federal Surplus for Fiscal Year 1930

If during the fiscal year 1930 there was no increase in the government's income and no increase in its operating expenditures, the Treasury, presumably, would end the year with a surplus approximating a quarter of a billion dollars. The actual results of the first three months' operations, with the increase in revenues far outstripping the increase in expenditures, indicated, however, that the surplus for the year would be far in excess of that amount. On the basis of these three months it was possible to calculate a surplus for the full fiscal year that would approach the $635,809,922 surplus of the fiscal year 1927.