Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

INTERNAL REVENUE LAWS.

OFFICE OF INTERNAL REVENUE, ORGANIZATION, APPROPRIATIONS, ETC.

[The sections enumerated in this compilation are from the Revised Statutes of the United States, unless otherwise indicated.]

[blocks in formation]

319. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Act of Feb. 24, 1899. Sec. 3, Act of June 320. Chief clerk.

321. Duties of Commissioner.

3671. Estimates of expenses of collecting internal revenue.

13, 1898. Officers and employees. Appropriations. Reports. Accounts of receipts of internal revenue, how kept.

239.

[blocks in formation]

of Internal Reve

SEC. 319. There shall be in the Department of the Commissioner Treasury a Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who shall nue.

be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall be entitled to a salary of six thousand dollars a year.

12 Op. Atty. Gen., 443; 8 Int. Rev. Rec., 54.

Duties of Commissioner of In

ternal Revenue.

SEC. 320. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is Chief clerk. authorized to designate one of the heads of division as chief clerk of the Bureau without additional compensation. SEC. 321. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall have general superintendence of the assessment and collection of all duties and taxes now or hereafter imposed by any law providing internal revenue; and shall prepare and distribute all the instructions, regulations, directions, forms, blanks, stamps, and other matters pertaining to the assessment and collection of internal revenue; and shall provide hydrometers, and proper and sufficient adhesive stamps and stamps or dies for expressing and denoting the several stamp duties, or, in the case of percentage duties, the amount thereof; and alter and renew or replace such stamps from time to time, as occasion may require. He may also contract for or procure the printing of requisite forms, decisions, and regulations, but the printing of such forms, decisions, and regulations shall be done at the Public Printing Office, unless the Public Printer shall be unable to perform the work: Provided, That the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may, under such regulations as may be established by the Secretary of the Treasury, after due public notice, receive bids and make contracts for supplying stationery,

blank-books, and blanks to the collectors in the several collection-districts; and the said Commissioner shall estimate in detail by collection-districts the expense of assessing and the expense of the collection of internal revenue.

See, as to stamps, sections 3238, 3312, 3328, 3341, 3369, 3395, 3445, 3446, and other sections.

Commissioner to make assessments (§§ 3176, 3182, 3253, 3309, 3314, 3371, 3437; § 3413, amended by §§ 19, 20, and 21, act of February 8, 1875; act of May 13, 1876; § 8, act of March 3, 1877; § 6, act of March 1, 1879, fruit brandy; § 8, act of May 28, 1880, amending § 6, act of March 1, 1879; § 9, act of August 2, 1886, oleomargarine; § 28, act of October 1, 1890, opium; § 27, act of August 28, 1894, playing cards; § 10, act of June 6, 1896, filled cheese; §§ 1, 3, 31, and 41 of the act of June 13, 1898, warrevenue law).

Commissioner to make regulations (§ 3447, p. 340). See also under the different subjects.

Distinction between "instructions” and “regulations." (Landram v. United States, 16 Ct. Clms., 74; 27 Int. Rev. Rec., 80.) A regulation made in pursuance of an act of Congress has the force of law. (United States v. Eliason, 16 Pet., 291; ex parte Reed, 100 U. S., 13; United States v. Barrows et al., 10 Int. Rev. Rec., 86; Harvey v. United States, 3 Ct. Clms., 38; Stotesbury v. United States, 23 Ct. Clms., 292.)

Scope and effect of regulations of the Department. (In re Kollock, 165 U. S., 526; 43 Int. Rev. Rec., 170; United States v. Symonds, 120 U. S., 46; Wilkins v. United States, U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals (1899); 96 Fed. Rep., 837; Vol. 2, Treas. Dec., No. 21623.)

Secretary of Treasury can not make regulations which will defeat the law. (Campbell v. United States, 107 U. S., 410.)

Regulations made by the Commissioner pursuant to the statutory authority, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, in respect to the assessment and collection of internal revenue, have the force of statutes; and the acts of the Commissioner are presumed to be the acts of the Secretary. (In re Huttman, 70 Fed. Rep., 699.)

In United States v. Eaton (144 U. S., 677), it was held that "a sufficient statutory authority should exist for declaring any act or omission a criminal offense." Regulations prescribed by law may have in a proper sense the force of law, but when the statute does not distinctly make the neglect to do the thing required a criminal offense a regulation can not have that effect. Regulations can not change the positive provisions of law. (United States v. Two Hundred Barrels of Whisky, 95 U. S., 571; 24 Int. Rev. Rec., 3; Morrill v. Jones, 106 U. S., 467.)

Court will take judicial notice of regulations prescribed in pursuance of law. (Caha v. United States, 152 U. S., 211; Wilkins v. United States, 96 Fed. Rep., 837; Vol. 2, Treas. Dec., (1899), No. 21623.)

Under Revised Statutes, sections 161, 251, 321, a regulation promulgated by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, prohibiting collectors from producing the records of their offices or furnishing copies thereof for the use of third persons or for use as evidence in behalf of litigants in any court, is a valid and binding regulation; and neither a State nor a State court has authority to require a collector to violate it, or to punish him for contempt because of his refusal to produce such records or to testify to their contents. (In re Comingore, Collector (1899), 96 Fed. Rep., 552, Vol. 2, Treas. Dec., No. 21584.)

CHINESE EXCLUSION AND REGISTRATION.

An act relating to Chinese exclusion and registration, approved May 5, 1892 (27 Stat., 25), known as the "Geary bill," required all Chinese laborers to register within one year, or before May 5, 1893. The number of Chinese registered up to and including May 3, 1894, was 106,811. (Commr's Report, 1894.)

Section 6 required certificates of residence to be obtained from collectors of internal revenue. This section was amended by the act of November 3, 1893 (28 Stat., 7), known as the "McCreary bill," which gave the Chinese six months further in which to register. (Regulations, series 7, No. 18, revised November, 1896.)

The Chinese exclusion acts have no reference to the subject of revenue. (Williams v. United States, 168 U. S., 382.)

expenses of col

revenue.

SEC. 3671. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall Estimates of estimate in detail, by collection-districts, the expense of lecting internal assessing and the expense of the collection of internal revenue, and submit the same to Congress at the commencement of each regular session.

Statements to Congress as to expenditure of fraud fund and miscellaneous expenditures, see section [3463a], p. 349.

missioner of In

SEC. 322. There shall be in the office of the Commissioner Deputy Comof Internal Revenue a Deputy Commissioner of Internal ternal Revenue. Revenue, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall be entitled to a salary of three thousand five hundred dollars a year.

By act approved January 29, 1874 (18 Stat., 6), it is provided that this "Office of Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue be, and the same is hereby, abolished; and that the Secretary of the Treasury may, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, designate one of the two remaining deputy commissioners as first deputy commissioner, who shall perform the duties and be paid only the salary prescribed for the office of deputy commissioner hereby abolished."

Since the act of August 15, 1876 (Legislative appropriation bill for fiscal year ending June 30, 1877), the appropriations have provided for only one Deputy Commissioner.

See section 235 R. S., and Supplement to Revised Statutes, vol. 1, p. 3.

(15 Op. Atty. Gen., 6.)

ty Commissioner

SEC. 323. The Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue Duties of Depu shall be charged with such duties in the office of the Com- of Internal Revmissioner of Internal Revenue as may be prescribed by the enue. Secretary of the Treasury, or by law, and shall act as Commissioner of Internal Revenue in case of the absence of that officer.

Vacancies occurring by death, resignation, absence, or sickness of chief of a bureau, how temporarily filled (§§ 178, 179, 180, R. S.) SEC. 349. There shall be in the Department of Justice, Solicitor of In. a Solicitor of Internal Revenue,

who

shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The salary of the Solicitor of Internal Revenue, as appropriated by the last appropriation act, is $4,500.

ternal Revenue.

A Solicitor of Internal Revenue was added to the Internal Revenue Office corps by the act of July 13, 1866 (14 Stat., 170), but by the act of June 22, 1870 (16 Stat., 162), organizing the Department of Justice, the Solicitor was formally transferred to that Department. He is the law officer and law adviser of the Commissioner. The only duties of which mention is made by law are in connection with compromise cases, section 3229, p. 111. SEC. 173. Each chief clerk in the several Departments and Bureaus, and other offices connected with the Depart- of other clerks. ments, shall supervise, under the direction of his immediate

10228- 4

Chief clerk to supervise duties

Chief clerk to distribute duties.

Office force and salaries.

superior, the duties of the other clerks therein, and see that they are faithfully performed.

SEC. 174. Each chief clerk shall take care, from time to time, that the duties of the other clerks are distributed with equality and uniformity, according to the nature of the case. He shall revise such distribution from time to time for the purpose of correcting any tendency to undue accumulation or reduction of duties, whether arising from individual negligence or incapacity, or from increase or diminution of particular kinds of business. And he shall report monthly to his superior officer any existing defect that he may be aware of in the arrangement or dispatch of business.

SEC. 175 directs what action the chief of a bureau or other superior officer shall take upon receiving the monthly report of his chief clerk, rendered pursuant to section 174.

SEC. 166 R. S. as amended by act of May 28, 1896 (29 Stat., 140) provides in regard to distribution of clerks and details.

[Extract from appropriation act (legislative, executive, and judicial) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, act of February 24, 1899, (30 Stat., 861)].

Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.-For Commissioner of Internal Revenue, six thousand dollars; deputy commissioner, four thousand dollars; chemist, two thousand five hundred dollars; two heads of divisions, at two thousand five hundred dollars each; four heads of divisions, at two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars each; superintendent of stamp vault, two thousand dollars; stenographer, one thousand eight hundred dollars; twentyfour clerks of class four; twenty-four clerks of class three; thirty-four clerks of class two; twenty-four clerks of class one; thirteen clerks, at one thousand dollars each; forty clerks, at nine hundred dollars each; two messengers; fourteen assistant messengers; and thirteen laborers; in all, two hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred and forty dollars.

For one stamp agent, one thousand six hundred dollars, and one counter, nine hundred dollars; in all, two thousand five hundred dollars, the same to be reimbursed by the stamp manufacturers.

The act of August 2, 1886 (24 Stat., 209), provided for "an analytical chemist and a microscopist, who shall each be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall each receive a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars per annum;" and provided that "the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may, whenever in his judgment the necessities of the service so require, employ chemists and microscopists, to be paid such compensation as he may deem proper, not exceeding in the aggregate any appropriation made for that purpose."

There has been no appropriation for a microscopist since July 1, 1895.

As to officer's right to whole amount of the annual salary fixed by the Revised Statutes, although Congress has appropriated a less amount as compensation for the fiscal year. (Wallace's case, 2 Lawrence Dec., 376; 28 Int. Rev. Rec., 271; Fisher's case, 15 Ct. Clms., 323; 109 U. S., 143.)

Form of oath, section 1757, R. S. Test oath (§ 1756) repealed act May 13, 1884 (23 Stat., 21).

Oath of office to employees taken without charge. Act of August 29, 1890 (26 Stat., 370).

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »