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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1957)
t TWO MECFOHD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Thursday, January 31, 1957 eauctsons on Federal Income Tax Uet Editor'! note: Thi Is the fourth of five articles to hrlp taxpayers In making out their federal Income tax return. By RUSSELL C. HARRINGTON Commissioner of Internal Revenue Written lor United Press Washington (U.R) May a taxpayer deduct from his in come the $5 he gave to Hungar ian refugee relief? May he de duct a political contribution? Those are two of the kind of special questions which are popping up this year. Last year, people were asking about deduc tions for hurricane and flood damage. Every year we are asked about deductions for med ical expenses, for payments to a nursery school for taking care of the -youngster while jpother works and for interest payments on installment buying. As the law allows you cer tain tax-free $600 exemptions for yourself and your depend ents, so it allows you certain amounts for such things as con tributions, interest payments, state and local taxes, medical ex penses, child care, some losses; even if you had none of them during the year. In claiming the deduction, you deduct a certain amount from your income, thereby reducing the amount which is taxed. Everyone is entitled to at least the standard deduction, which allows you approximately 10 per cent of your income for deducti ble outlays, even if you spent less than that or nothing at all. If you claim the standard deduc tion, you cannot claim it for more than $1,000. In most cases It comes to less than that. Standard Deduction Taxpayers who file their re turn on the card form 1040A and those who figure their tax from the tax table in the offi cial instructions take the stand ard deduction. It is automatically calculated in the tax these peo ple owe. Taxpayers who compute their own tax may take either a stand ard or an itemized deduction. 11 your contributions and oth er deductible expenses come to more than the standard deduc tion allows, your best bet may be to list them all, in the spaces provided on page 2 of Form 1040. Listing each deduction item-by-item removes you from the percentage and dollar limits of the standard deduction. The rest of this article is de voted to deductions which may be claimed if you itemize your deductions. It may be worth your while to add up your de ductible outlays on a separate sheet first, to see if they give you a bigger deduction than the standard allowance. Contributions are deductible If they go to religious, charita ble, educational, scientific or literary organizations, so long as the organization is not operat ed for personal profit and does not carry on propaganda or try to influence legislation. This means contributions to qualified Hungarian relief groups, such as the Americanself. Regardless of the number ing or laundering, you may de- urn Long Form 10 Klamath Welfare Probe Ordered Salem (U.R) Investigation of complaints against the operation of the Klamath County Welfare Commission has been ordered by State Welfare Administrator Jean Jewett, Gov. Robert D. Holmes announced today. Gov. Holmes said a petition with 76 signatures had been re ceived by his office charging the Klamath county agency with "unequal and shameful treat ment of welfare cases" ' and blaming it with the situation leading to a shooting incident there last month. One commissoiner was killed and two persons injured in the shooting. Miss Jewett said she was or dering a full scale investigation into the charges and that the commission's assistant attorney general would go to Klamath county next week to take testi mony from the signers. Seamen Quit Work in Tribute to Lundeberg San Francisco ;U.PJ Thou sands of seamen aboard ships in American and Canadian ports quit work today in tribute to the memory of maritime leader Harry Lundeberg. Funeral services for "Lunde berg were scheduled this after noon with interment to follow at Olivet Memorial park in nearby Colma. Lundeberg died Monday of a heart attack. He was secretary-treasurer of the Sailors Union of the Pacif ic; president of the Seafarers International Union of North America; head of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department; and belonged to several interna tional trade union groups. FIRE TOLL REACHES 10 New Haven. Conn. U.R) The death toll in last Thursday's garment factory fire rose to 10 Wednesday night with the death of Mrs. Teresa Sulo. 43. The other nine victims were burned to death during the fire which swept a four-story loft building. Red Cross and others, are de ductible. Contributions to the 1956 election campaign, to candidates or parties, are not deductible. Child Care: You are not per mitted to deduct for baby sitter fees when you go to the movies. Deductions for child care are designed primarily for mothers who are working or actively looking for work, or for a man who is divorced or legally separated or a widower. Women and these eligible men may deduct up to S600 a year, if it costs that much to have someone look after the child while they are at work or seeking work. The child must be the taxpayer's own child, step child or legally adopted child under 12 or any other depend ent who is physically or mental ly incapable of caring for him- of children being cared for, the taxpayer may not deduct more than S600, and may not deduct that much if the care actually costs less. A working wife may claim the deduction only if she files a joint return with her hus band. If their combined income is more than $4,500 the deduc tion they may claim is reduced by the amount of any income over $4,500. For example ($100 higher than $4,500) and their child care costs were $400, they could deduct only $300 ($100 less than S400L, You may not deduct amounts paid to one of your children to take care of another, or paid to some other dependent to care for your child. If you have a maid or housekeeper who looks after the child and also does something like cooking, clean- duct only that part of her pay which represents the time she spends caring for the child. Medical Expenses: Basically, you are allowed to deduct medi cal and dental expenses if they run higher than three per cent of your income. You do not deduct that first three per cent portion, but you do deduct the amount above that. If you are 65 or older, you may deduct all your own medical expenses. There are ceilings in all cases. For instance, a single person claiming only the one exemp tion for himself is limited to a $2,500 medical-dental deduction in one year; married couples filing a joint return are limited to $5,000 if they have no de pendent, $7,500 with one de pendent, $10,000 if they have two or more dependents. You may deduct payments to physicians, surgeons, dentists, optometrists, qualified psychol ogists and Christian Science practitioners. Also the expenses of diagnosis, treatment or pre vention of a disease; hospital bills, nursing, laboratory ser vices; eyeglasses, hearing aids, drugs (any amount spent for drugs (any amount spent for drugs over one per cent of your income), medical and dental supplies (including false teeth and artificial limbs), ambulance hire and health insurance plans which cover the cost of medical care. Note: If you receive payments from a health insurace plan, or are otherwise repaid for your medical or dental expen ses, your reduction is reduced accordingly. Storm Losses: Generally, the deducation you may claim for storm, flood or other casualty 40 Explain damage to your property is the vide by 12, take six per cent of difference between the value of your whole property immediate ly afterwards (before you clean it up). This applies whether you lose a bush or a house. You may not deduct the cost of repair or replacement; just the lost value. Sentimental value does not count. The loss you claim may not be greater than what you paid for the property. Interest: The interest you pay on a mortgage or a personal loan or back taxes may be deducted. It is clearly designated and easily reported. On many installment purch ases, there may be no interest fee as such, but a carrying charge which includes the inter est. The law tells you how to figure the interest: Calculate how much you owed on your purchase at the start of each month; add these amounts, di- the answer and report it as in terest. The deduction may not exceed the total carrying charge for the whole year. Taxes: As a general rule, you can deduct most state and local taxes imposed directly on you, such as income, real estate and personal property and sales taxes. You may not deduct: Federal sales or excise taxes, federal social security taxes, hunting or dog licenses, water taxes or auto inspection fees. Let me repeat: You may not claim any of these deductible items unless you list all your deductions one-by-one; you may not claim them if you take the standard deduction. Friday: Deductions for sick ness or injury; tax benefits for persons with pensions or annuities. any similarity to a sports car is purely intentional ! THE '57 CHEVROLET. . . sweet, smooth and sassy! It doesn't just look like it loves the road, clings to curves and laughs at hills. That's the way it goes. Come on in and see that you don't have to own a sports car to have fun behind the wheel. It's not just a happy coincidence that this new Chevy handles and acts like a pedigreed sports car. Chevrolet engineers planned it that way from the start They set out to build a car that would take to the road like it really and truly belonged there. A car with crisp, solid steering and quick silver responsiveness. A car that would travel true through a tight turn and hold a string-straight course with just a light touch on the wheel. A car with riding qualities that would make all the streets and highways out your way suddenly seem newer. And they didn't stop there. They added new velvety V8 power that ranges up to 245 h.p. Come in and see what Chevrolet has done for driving fun! . 'Special high-performance t70-h.p. engine also available at exti The Bel Air Convertible with Body by Fisher (above). The dashing Chevrolet Corvette (at right) Only franchised Chevrolet dealers Q&jlff display this famous trademark (CIHIEVmciDILIETr Phone 2-6115 Medford SAVE! SAVE! SAVE GROCETERIA DOLLAR DAYS SEE THE GROCETERIA AD ON PAGES 6-7
