Tobacco Documents Online

THE DAILY DISPATCIi genderson, North Carolina October 12, 190 Taxes By The 'Rouir', An indication of value: of the to3iaceo industry in supportirng' t'He 'lavish1 spending . outlays of' the Fed eral government has beeq ~ provided by Th4 Tbbaero IpSty tc, Inc., through its publication, Tobacco News. That journal has calculated, on the basis of official figures, that the Federal government alone collected $230,30.7.72 per hour around the clock last year in excise taxes on manufac- * ' tured tobacco products, chiefly cigarettes, or more than two billion doldars.llTor is that all. ' States, cities and counties took an additional two billion dollars, or one-eighth of a million dollars every hour around the clock through- out 1961. The tobacco dig, was exceeded only by taxes on -alcoholic beverages in the amount of' $42.2 over the past one hundred years. There are excise taxes on other products, each of whichi and all combined,, were far less important income producers. Tobacco. taxes were first imposed during the Civil War to help finance that conflict for the Federal' government. It was in the same year, 1362, that the Internal Revenue Service was established. Since the Civil War tax act, there have beem twelve ircreases in Federal taxes on cigarettes. The most .recent, now nearly ten years ago, was a penny a pack at the time of the Korean War. It was imposed with the assurance that it would' be temporary. But, like so many other leviies, the temporary cigarette tax has be- come permanent, and all efforts toward re- moving it have proved& futile. The Federal government alone collects more taxes from tobacco than growers who produce the leaf receive for their crop. When State and local taxes are included, the take is nearly three times the return to farmers. It would seem to be about time producers joined with the industry ini demanding some relief. For only in that manner will there be any relief from a levy which is largely unfair and unjust. 10 03531'$V° I1CRS,AM S"UNi . Dt4rham, North Carolina ©ctober 16, 1962 ;'.The Tobacco Tax Albatross The federal government' collects more in taxes from :'tobacco than the income of farmers who, grow it When. state and local levies are; added, the total tax take on '=tobacco every year, is three times the revenue received by the produicers. , . ' Every hour of' the day last year, the federal' govern- ment col&cted $230,3118! ' in'excise taxes on, manufactured tobacco products, 'chiefly cigarettes. During :the same period, the state an& local governments were taking in an additional i;1I25,000'an hour. ~ . .. I • The total 4ax take on tobacco for the year amounted . to more than four billiion "doIDars. This year, the figure is expectied, to go even higher. These statistics are contained in a recent report of The Tobacco Institute, Inc., whichi is based in Washington and of which Durham native George V. Allen is president! . The Institute, in releasing !he* agures, reminds that tobaccoltaxes first were imposed to finance the Civil War, that'~there have been 12 increases since then-the last during the Korean War-and that each time a, tax was 3mposed or increased it.was stated that the levy would be only temporary. :: None of the taxes ever has been removed. A11 have become permanent. Past' efforts of the industry to obtain tax relief' have been rebuffed in years now bygone. Until now, it has been a. fight largel,, carried on at the manufacturing level. But since the farmers who produce the leaf get' less from it than does the governn;ent in taxes, it would seem to be time for the producers to lend their voices in the cry !or relief'from unfair and discriminatory taxes. Certainly, the tobacco industry ton long has carried more than its share of the tax load on manufactured products. And the vote-conscious Washington ear, which can be deaf' to industry, usually can be counked, on being attuned to the voice of the farmer.