An eminent artist said that, to get the full value of his work, it must be viewed from the viewpoint of the artist himself. In the same sense the authors of this book on the Federal Income Tax believe that a careful consideration of these introductory paragraphs will prove beneficial to the reader in his effort to gain a comprehensive understanding of this complex and very much misunderstood law. The motive of this publication is in the fact that there is not a treatise on the subject that is intelligible to any one un- acquainted with legal phraseology, and similarly there is none that is both brief and complete, and which is based on the Supreme Court construction of the law; hence the purpose of this effort is to reduce the requirements of the new law to plain language so that any one by reading it may clearly grasp it and know his rights as well as his duties under the While fulfilling this aim for the general reader who may be liable for the Income Tax, we have endeavored at the same time to make this work equally desirable and valuable for the lawyer. We have tried to strike a happy medium in a book that is so plain that it cannot fail to be understood and so complete and accurate that nothing essential shall be left out of it. All the law is given for reference, and, by the use of the Index to the law and the explanations, it is be- lieved that the answer to any desired question may be easily and quickly obtained. All the law and the constructions and In developing these aims we have not followed the usual style of law books. We have tried to meet a demand, not to create one. In the first part of the work we give the one- page summary, by the mastery of which the reader will have a general idea of the law, and this will aid him in grasping the details. Next we give our own plain outline of the main requirements of the statute in brief paragraphs that include answers to all the usual inquiries of persons interested. By the cross-index the reader is referred to all other parts of the work. Following this are the complete Statute, the Regula- tions of the Treasury Department, the special rulings, the Supreme Court opinion in the Brushaber case, Forms, Sta- The Statute and the Regulations are given in full, and without accompanying comment. The Regulations by the The reader who undertakes to gain a general knowledge of of Contents and the Index have been made as complete as possible, and under the name of the subject indicated the searcher will find his references to that point in every part of the book, including the authors' explanation, the forms, the Statute, the Regulations and the Statistics. On account of this feature of the Index, we have not cumbered the explanatory paragraphs with numerous citations of authorities, but give only such references to cases and other works as may be really useful. The case of Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad (13) practically covers all the Statute. From the Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, it is made plain that the administration of the new law has been effective and that only minor changes are contemplated in the near future. One of these is that all persons having "gross" incomes of $3,000 or more be required to list the incomes. At present the requirement is for "net" incomes, so that the individual with an income near $3,000 is practically left to be his own judge as to whether or not his "net" income is up to the required amount. A second probable amendment is to require partnerships to list the partnership income as now required of corporations, instead of the present arrangement, which only requires the partners to list their own proportionate parts of the income. The present law requires the return of the income to be made in the district where the taxpayer's principal place of business is located, and it is proposed that this be changed |