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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 7, 1955)
FOURTEEN MEDF0HD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Monday, March 7, 1955 Top Tax OTiiciial -Helps 'Prepare Eef urns Editor'! Not: This if the first or a upeclml teriei of five dispatches by the top federal tax official to help tax payers make oat their 1954 returns. By T. COLEMAN ANDREWS Commissioner of Internal Revenue ' Written For United Press Washington UR) It is time for millions of U. S. citizens and residents to file a federal Income tax return for 1954! This year there are new bene fits for almost everyone, enacted by Congress when it gave the federal tax code a complete overhaul. The Internal Revenue Service has compiled a list of questions that taxpayers are asking about the law as it stands now. with particular emphasis on the changes which have been made since tax time last spring. By answering the most-asked questions here, I hope to save many of you the trouble of wait ing in. line to have your prob lems solved by our staff of tax payer assistants. Without doubt, the most fre quently asked question' is: "When do I get my refund?". That is one thing the new law did not change. The answer is: Just as soon as we can check your return and mail your check; it may take a few weeks; but sometimes it can be a matter of months. Flla Return Earlr , The best advice, if you want vour refund in a hurry, is to file your tax return early. The Internal Revenue Service is handling almost 60,000,000 per sonal income tax returns this spring, plus more than twice that amount on other taxes, so the later you fe, the bigger the pile of returns to be proces pH ahead of vours. It's "first come, first served." Before we get to the other questions. I would like to men tion the most conspicuous chanee in the new law: the deadline April 15, or one month later than in past years. It is still better for us, and for you if vou file early, however. The basic fact of who must file a return is unchanged from last year. If you are a citizen or resident of the United states, under 65 years old, and your gross income was $600 or more in 1954, you must file. For most waee and salary workers, gross income is the same as the total of their wages and salaries. If vou are 65 or older on Dec 31, you are not, required to file a return unless your gross in come was $1,200 or more. Even though you are not re quired to file a return under the rules outlined above, it is in your interest to file if you had income ' from which your em ployer withheld taxes during the year. You may be eligible for a refund. . Most Frequent Questions The questions we "hear most frequently on the new law in volve allowances for sickness and injury, for children who earn money on their own, for child care expenses, for divi dends, for retirement : income, and for the new "head of house hold" and surviving widow or widower classifications. Old questions which reappear most often are those which per tain to the rules for husband and wife filing their returns jointly or separately, and the relative advantages of each method; exemptions allowed for dependents; deductions allowed for such things as insurance and union or club dues; and prop erty losses in storms, such as last year's hurricanes, Carol. Edna and Hazel. ' I shall answer the questions on major new changes in the law first and then the recurring questions. At this point, it might be well to handle one more constant in- quiry: which tax form should I use?" There are three to choose from; Form 1040 A, short Form 1040 and long Form 1040. . One taxpayer asks: "When will we get a return the ordinary taxpayer can make out without help from others?" ' The new Form I040A is our answer. It is a seven-by-three inch card-check size-which is brief and relatively simple to fill out. Almost half the indi- SNIDER'S MILK Helps you Sleep Better vidual income tax returns filed this year will be 1040 As. Standard Deduction Benefit You may use 104CA if your income last year was less than $5,000 and if jt was in the form of wages and salary from which cur employer or employers withheld income taxes each pay day, except that the total amount my include not more than $100 in other wages, or dividends or interest, from which taxes have not been withheld. A husband and wife may file a joint , return on Form 1040A if their combined incomes are less than $5,000, and if not more than $100 or this is income which had no tax withheld from it. Use of 104 QA means, you are getting the benefit of the standard deduction of approxi mately 10 per cent of your in come for charitable contribu tions, medical expenses, union dues, taxes, interest and other deductible items. Unless these items were extraordinary (such as the expenses of owning a house or having a baby) you probably will fare better with the standard deduction. When" you file a 1040A with your district director of Inter nal Revenue, please send the card itself, not the yellow in struction sheet. And don't send your tax pay ment. The director will com pute your tax and send you a bill if you owe more than was withheld, or a refund . if too much was, withheld. To file the short Form 1040 you use page 1, and maybe pages 2 or 4, of Form 1040. The Short 1040 - The short 1040 is for persons or couples with less than $5,000 adjusted gross income that is, gross income minus certain ex penses of earning rj and who have more than $100 from which taxes have not been with held, but who .do not want to list the deductions such as con tributions and other items which may be claimed on the long Form 1040. Using short Form 1040, the taxpayer must ascer tain his tax liability from a table, and submit with his re turn a tax payment, if he owes anything. The standard deduction plies for taxpayers using the short 1040 as it does for those using 1040A, and allowance for this deduction, as well as for the personal exemptions, is made in Infernal Revenue Head Wants Payers To Receive Breaks Washington U.R) T. Coleman Andrews, commissioner of internal revenue, wants every taxpayer to get all the advan tages he is fairly entitled to un der the revised law passed last year. And he wants to make it as easy as possible for taxpayers to make out the .1954 returns which must be filed by April 15. the tax table. , The long Form 1040 is a must for the small number of tax payers to whom the 1040 A or the short 1040 does not apply for one ' reason or another. Specifically, you must use the lone Form 1040 if your income aP"Jjs $5,000 or more, and you must vise it if ;you choose to list your deductions item by item. Tuesday: The new rules about exemptions for dependents. He had the Internal Revenue Service keep track of the ques tions most frequently posed by early-bird taxpayers who "al ready have been seeking advice from revenue offices. Those questions and others are answer ed by Andrews in a special ser ies of five articles he has writ ten for United Press, which be gin today. T. (for Thomas) Coleman 'An drews became the nation's 30th commissiioner of internal revenue two years and one month ago. ' - He came to Washington from Richmond, ,Va., where he had practiced accounting for 35 years working on taxpayers' problems from the start." During his years as commis sioner, Andrews has reorganiz ed the Internal Revenue service and renamed it (it used to be the bureau of . ... ). Taxpay er problems are now settled at the local level; no longer, in Washington. The average time it takes to settle such problems has been shortened. " Auditing of tax returns has been increas ed. : ' : . - .. . Andrews directed a crack down on' unjustifiable claims for expense account deductions and pressed for development of a simplified tax form . ; He is one of Washington' most traveling officials because he wants to discuss administra tive matters with the staff which conducts operations in the field, and tax matters with tax payers, large and smalL 'He has also set up a nine-man com mittee of lawyers, accountants and tax officials of corporations to advise him regularly en tax affairs. SLABS AND ROUGH BLOX GREEN DANDY TO BURN WITH DRY WOOD BIG DOUBLE LOAD OR SINGLE LOAD BEDFORD FUEL CO. Tel. 2-2111 Court & McAndrowi m Ford passenger-car sales , to customers outnumbered those of any other make by thousands?' Ford is the leader in ride Ford was first in its field to introduce Ball-Joint Front Suspension the greatest advance in chassis design in 20 years. And for '55, it's even better. Springs are set at an angle to smooth out even the tiniest bumps. It's the new Ford Angle-Poised Ride. ' - CGDEanD EG TOEII3 ILEIinDISSl IIEJ HLJL IpnJMruJEElBO ZTEiZiir TTGDnJES &KlE3 ETUTf HIT XLGDmTTIHI XCOdDHlB &ism etts EASisr 3po SI23E wnss Ford is the leader in styling Motorists know that Ford has set the style trend in the industry for years. And now, with styling inspired by the fabulous Thunderbird, Ford, is farther out front than ever! Ford is the leader in V-8 power Ford was first in its field (by 23 years) to provide the advantages of V-8 power. Since that time, Ford has built over 14,000,000 V-8 engines more ; than all other makers combined! For 1955, Ford offers two new and mighty V-8's, ,as well as a most modern Six all with the split-second response of Trigger-Torque power! ' 'According to . registration figures furnished by ' -R. L Polk & Company. V r.eju MAIN & FIR STREETS PHONE 3-4547
