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cigar boxes, or for selling the same, or offering them for sale, without defacing or destroying the stamps.

SECTION 33, enacts that tonnage duties shall be levied but once within one year.

SECTION 34, which concludes the amendatory Law of 1867, repeals the tax upon advertisements, and gross receipts of toll roads, with the usual saving clause for accrued rights and penalties under all former acts relating to the Internal Revenue.

This rapid analysis of the Law of 1867, will give some idea of the topics which have engaged the attention of Congress in its enactment.

The Compiler has retained in this edition of the work the entire Law of 1864 as amended in 1866, with the full body of notes and references of other editions, superadding as a Supplement the Statute of the present winter, and a carefully prepared collection of the leading decisions and rulings of the Commissioner, Hon. E. A. Rollins, and his efficient Deputies, who, from their extended experience in the administration of the system, and their unremitting labors, have afforded the subordinate officers of the revenue invaluable assistance, and the country the fullest guaranty of a faithful and wise performance of important and arduous duties.

In the Appendix will be found extracts from carefully prepared circular instructions issued by the Department, portions of which are to some extent inapplicable to the present Law, but all useful for reference and guide, and quite essential to be thoroughly understood by all revenue officers.

The immediate assessment of the Annual Tax, with its engrossing duties devolved upon an Assessor, and the limited time allowed the Editor to prepare a treatise upon topics far more deserving of greater research, and better analysis, must be his apology for the errors, omissions and incompleteness, which may here be discovered. He submits this third compilation of the Revenue Law, to the public, trusting it will be found convenient and useful. CHARLES N. EMERSON.

PITTSFIELD, March 10, 1867.

Explanatory.

THE numbers of the sections of the act of June 30, 1864, as amended by the act of March 3, 1865, are herein retained. Also the numbers of the unrepealed sections of these acts, and of such acts of Congress deemed applicable to the Internal Revenue Law, which were incorporated by the Treasury Department in the official copy of the act of 1864.

The provisions of the law of July 13, 1866, whether as new and complete sections, or as amendment of previous statutes, are printed in brackets, thus, [] and inserted in their appropriate places.

The law of March 2, 1867, is published in order of sections, at beginning of Supplement.

ERRATA.

The law of 1864 as amended was printed, in part, from manuscript, and a few errors escaped notice, viz:

On page 27, three lines from foot, for "two years" read fifteen months.

On page 132, two lines from foot, read "proposed but not finally adopted in the Senate," in place of "effected." (The change was effected by act of March 2, 1867, q. v.)

On page 180, line 25, erase "pumps."

Internal Revenue Guide.

LAW OF 1866.

AN ACT*

TO REDUCE INTERNAL TAXATION, AND TO AMEND AN ACT ENTITLED “AN ACT TO PROVIDE INTERNAL REVenue to SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT, TO PAY INTEREST ON THE PUBLIC DEBT, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," APPROVED JUNE THIRTIETH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR, AND ACTS AMENDATORY THEREOF.

Commissioner of Internal Revenue.† His Salary, Duties and Powers.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the pur

* The "Excise," or "Internal Revenue Law," was enacted by Congress July 1, 1862, and contained 119 Sections. On the 14th of July, 1862, it was provided that the portion of it relating to Stamps should not take effect till September 1, 1862; and that portion relating to the appointment of Assessors and Collectors, should take effect on the 21st of July. By joint resolution of July 17, Section 77 of the Act was amended, substituting August 1 for May 1, 1862, as the date from and after which certain duties should be levied and paid upon carriages, yachts and billiard tables; and further providing that certain matters required by the act to be done, either on or before the 1st days of July or August, should be postponed to such time as might be fixed and determined on by the Secretary of the Treasury; he to give public notice of the time when the law should take effect. This provision, somewhat anomalous in the enactment of General Laws, became necessary, in order properly to arrange the machinery for the efficient operation of a novel and important system of taxation. Under this joint resolution, the Secretary of the Treasury gave notice that the Law would take effect on September 1, 1862.

On the 3d of March, 1863, important amendments were adopted by Congress, †The first Commissioner was Hon. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts. To him and to the Deputy, C. F. Estee, of New York, is due, in great measure, the admirable system of forms and details, which have required but little change since they originated them, and have only been essentially modified to meet the changes in the law itself. He was succeeded by Hon. Joseph J. Lewis, of Pennsylvania, who brought to the position much experience and discriminating legal acumen. He held the office till 1865, when he was succeeded by William Orton, Esq., of New York city, a gentleman of much business capacity, and great familiarity with the practical operation of the system. He, however, resigned in a few months, and was succeeded by Hon. E. A. Rollins, of New Hampshire, the present incumbent, who was the Deputy Commissioner under Judge Lewis, and is an efficient and accomplished officer.

pose of superintending the collection of internal duties, stamp duties, licenses, or taxes, imposed by this act, or which may hereafter be imposed, and of assessing the same, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, whose annual salary shall be [six] thousand dollars, shall be charged, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with preparing all the instructions, regulations, directions, forms, blanks, stamps, and licenses, and distributing the same, or any part thereof, and all other matters pertaining to the assessment and collection of the duties, stamp dutics, licenses, and taxes which may be necessary to carry this act into effect, and with the general superintendence of his office, as aforesaid, and shall have authority, and hereby is authorized and required, to provide cotton marks, hydrometers, and proper and sufficient adhesive stamps, and stamps or dies for expressing and denoting the several stamp duties, or the amount thereof in the case of percentage duties, imposed by this act, and to alter and renew or replace such stamps, from time to time, as occasion shall require. He may also contract for or procure the printing of requisite forms, decisions, regulations, and advertisements; 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. (And the Secretary of the Treasury may, at any time prior to the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixtysix, assign to the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue such number of clerks as he may deem necessary, or the exigencies of the both in the machinery of the law and the rates of duty. On the 30th of June, 1864, after a most thorough review and examination of its details, in the Committee of Ways and Means in the House, and the Finance Committee of the Senate, the law was substantially remodeled; regard being had in its modified provisions, as well to the defects in the practical workings of the system as to the necessity for increased taxation. On the 3d of March, 1865, the law was again essentially amended, and the rates of tax in most respects greatly increased, and additional subjects of taxation provided for.

In July, 1866, the present law was established, and a substantial reduction made in the rates of duty upon some articles; others which had been subject to taxes, either burdensome or impolitic, omitted, and an estimated reduction made in the aggregate revenues from internal duties, of some seventy millions of dollars. Congress was greatly aided in establishing this amended system, by the labors and reports of a Board of Commissioners raised by Congress, to inquire "into the manner and efficiency of the present and past methods of collecting the Internal Revenue and to take testimony." The country owes a vast debt of gratitude to that Board for their exhausting and efficient services, and their reports are models of careful analysis and philosophical conclusions. (Vide reports of Hon. D. A. Wells, Chairman.)

In the first ten months of the operation of the original Law of 1862, as amended in 1863, it realized for the Treasury something less than $40,000,000. In the second year, ending June 30, 1864, about $125,000,000. For the year ending June 30, 1865, about $211,000,000; while it is estimated that the receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, will fall but little short of $300,000,000. (It appears by the returns of the Treasury at the end of this fiscal year-on 30th of June-to be actually in excess of $311,000,000.) This vast revenue has been realized with but little embarrassment to the industrial pursuits of the country; the people have cheerfully responded to this unprecedented burden upon their resources; and its success as a financial measure has excited the astonishment and admiration of foreign nations.

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