Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, March 23, 1961, Image 19

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Medford mail tribune., March 23, 1961, Image 19

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Newspaper Page TextTHURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1961 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDi'ORD. ORE. Internal Revenue Service Plans on Modern Machines To Snare Tax Dodgers . . .. i i Washington - (UPll - Most people struggling to figure out their federal income tax be fore the April 17 deadline don't know it but they are part of the end of an era. Not that Uncle Sam is junk ing the income tax. or even lowering it. Not a bit. He's going to make evading it more dangerous. Starting next January, the Internal Revenue Service be gins using electronic memory devices, high speed computers and other marvels of modern day processing. These will replace cumber some manuals and business machine methods, thumbing through files, hit-and-miss seeking for taxpayers who have moved to a new address, and other tedious tasks. Initial use will be for sev eral southern stntes-the Caro linas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Tennes see. Business returns in these areas will be processed elec tronically In 1002, and lndi vidual returns the following year. From the taxpayer's point of view, tho most important thing about the introduction of "automatic dula process ing," as the experts call it, is that it will make it more dif ficult to cheat by not report ing income. In short, you're not going to like the new system if you "forget" to report stock divi dends - or to file a return at all some years. The electronic brain to be installed in a new National Computer Center at Marlinsburg, W.Va. has been designed to discover your "for-gctfulncss." Automatic data processing will permit a more meticulous review of returns than ever before. Now, the Service's 50,000 employes can give only limited scrutiny to the returns nearly 61 million taxpayers are filing for 1080. All returns are checked for mistakes in arithmetic but in the more complicated returns only some computations are checked. A limited number of returns are sifted more thoroughly for omitted income. (How the lat ter are chosen is a closely guarded secret. But it is ad milted that chances of audit go up with income and deductions.) Electronic processing will subject returns to closer, more exhaustive tests of accuracy and completeness. It may also free Treasury agents from clerical duties so they can spend more time on lax en forcement. By 1970 there will be an estimated 72 million tnvnnv. ers, about 20 per cent more than now. A similar increase may occur in the total number of documents handled by In ternal Revenue each year -now a monumental 400 mil lion. It is all the Service can do to keep up with this ava lanche of paper. Indeed, as many taxnavers know. lhi Service often falls months be hind. Eventually, the Service ex pects to have nine data pro cessing service centers throughout the nation. They will have machines which will transfer the information on tax and information re turns to magnetic tapes. Fed Into Computer The tapes will be shipped to Martinsburg, where they will be fed into a big computer -the national tax brain. Using its master file of accounts on every taxpayer in the nation, the computer will: -check the arithmetic of the returns and compute taxes due the government or refunds due the taxpayer. -keep track of taxpayers who move from one collection district to another. This will help locate people who have unclaimed refund checks as well as discover people who claim a tax refund for one year when they still owe taxes for a prior year. -provide a consolidated tax account showing each taxpay er's standing with Internal Revenue at any time. -decide which returns should be audited by agiAits, because of suspiciously heavy deductions, suspiciously little income or for other reasons. -match information report ed on various forms with what the taxpayer reports. For ex ample, the Service gets infor mation reports from corpora tions on payments of $10 a year or more in dividends and interest payments of more than $600 a year. It also gets employers' reports on wages and salaries paid and taxes withheld. These "information return" flow into Internal Revenue offices by the mil lions. Now, few "information re turns" are matched with tax returns to see if the taxpayer is reporting all his income. Often "information returns" are received in one office and tax returns in another. Ulti mately, automatic data pro cessing is expected to permit 100 per cent matching. To facilitate matching new returns with old ones and with information documents, each taxpayer probably will have his own account number, pie have them. It is asking The Service is considering Congress for authority to as using Social Security num- sign numbers to taxpayers ac- bers, since most working peo- cuums. fi Patronize This PARK & SHOP MEMBER DON'T FORGET TO USE PARK & SHOP WHEN YOU STOP AT ... . GINN'S FLOWERS 26 S. Central SP 3-1733 High Court Holds Truck Differential Law Constitutional Salem - (UPll - The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Wednes day that the law differentiat ing between log trucks ana other types of trucks is con stitutional. A decision written by Jus tice Kenneth O'Connell re versed an order of the Doug las county circuit court ac quitting Carrol Marion Pyle of a charge of operating a truck loaded in excess of weight limits provided by law. Pyle had moved a commodi ty other than logs, poles and piling. The axle load on his truck was 2,100 pounds over weight and the overload pen alty was $63. A log truck carrying the Machines Possess Thinking Ability; Power To Perceive By JOSEPH L. MYLER Washington - IliPD - A sci entist writing about dogs says they hive . marvelously per ceptive senses but can't think. A couple of scientists writ ing about electronic comput ers say these machines can think but lack perception, Now comes the Mark 1 per ception which, while It prob ably could not be trained to fetch the paper, possesses both thinking ability and the ca pacity to perceive, recognize, and classify patterns. The proposition that ma chines can think is defended by Dr. Oliver G. Selfridgc, mathematician at the Massa chusetts Institute of Technol oev. and Dr. Ulric Ncisser, a psychologist at Brandcis uni versity. Improved on Thinking In an article published by Scientific American, they told of a machine which once im proved on the thinking of the human geniuses A. N. wmic head and Bcrtrand Russell. This machine is known as the "logical theorist." It was created by a group from the Carnegie Institute of Tccnnoi' obv and the Rand Corp. Ac, cording to Selfridgc and Nels ser, it found proofs for many of the theorems In "Prlnclpia Matliematlca," a monumental work in logic by Whitehead and Russell. "At least one proof," Self' rldec and Ncisser reported, "is more elegant than t h c Whltohcad-Russell version But the trouble with com puters is that, though they can think and In many respects outnerform Hie men who made them, "they are not well couiuped to select from their environment the things or relations they are going to think about. This is what has distin guished them "from intelli gent living organism." Every child learns to use and under stand language before he can prove propositions. Computers can find proofs "but they can not understand the simplest spoken instructions." Perception Sought The , computer people are trying to endow their crea tions with perception. One new device, by means of a grid of photoelectric cells, has learned to rcconnlzc hand printed letters. 11 makes some what fewer mistakes of Iden tification than do human read ers. A U. S. government re search report says another ma chine, the Mark 1 Perception, can be taught to classify air craft patterns into groups. In 10 or 20 years, computer scientists say, machines will be able to hear and under stand as well a read and re port. Machines already devel oped ara doing Industrial la bor that used to be done by human workers. Machines of tli( future, sci entist say, may displace the factory bosses, too. same weight would have had an overload of only 100 pounds and the penalty would have been less - $25. He contended this was an unconstitutional discrimina tion between log truckers and those handling other types of cargo. Not Arbitrary Judge O Connell wrote that the classification between the two types of truckers is "not arbitrary and docs not violate the equal protection of due process clauses of the federal and state constitutions." The high court noted that ordinarily, logs, poles and pil ing vary greatly in size, shape and weight and it is difficult to accurately estimate weight and distribution of such load. The court also noted that logs usually arc loaded in woods where it Is impracti cable to provide scales. The opinion said if a log hauler exceeds a limit espec ially granted to him, he "suf fers a more severe penally than docs the hauler of other commodities for similar ex cess weight violation." Judge Eldon F. Caley was "reversed. ' Other decisions: Robert F. Daly vs. Thomas Jackson, ct al, appellants; ap peal from Linn county; Judge Victor-Olllvcr affirmed; suit to require Jackson and others to cause a corporation , of which all were stockholders to issue a $25,000 note, Daly favored. Leonard L. Browning, ap pellant vs. Terminal Ice & Cold Storage Co.; appeal from Multnomah county; opinion by Justice William Perry; Judge James W. Crawford af firmed; personal injury action under employers liabilily act, $77,735 verdict for Browning affirmed. Case Dismissed Norman Rcid, ct al vs. Ella L. Reid, appellant; appeal from Multnomah county; op In. Ion by Justice Perry; Judge Robert C. Bellonl affirmed; suit Involving title to proper ty, proceedings dismissed. Karl Scott, ct al vs. Law rence Warehouse Co., appel lant; appeal from Multnomah county; opinion by Justice Al fred T. Goodwin; Judge Charles W. Redding modified and case remanded; judgment for $23,510 against the ware house company for alleged failure to deliver certain lum ber, judgment Increased to $23,877 under cross-appeal. Slate vs. O. Wayne Dodson, appellant; appeal from Ben ton county; opinion by Jus tice Hall S. Lusk; Judge Fred McHonry affirmed; convic tion of Dodson on a charge of drunken driving affirmed. 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