Hiddan Taxes

The most sinister taxes are not the ones the tax collector itemizes, specifies, and holds his hand out to receive. Not at all. The sinister taxes are the hidden taxes, the indirect taxes that the average man pays every time he pulls a nickel from his pocket to buy the smallest necessity of life, but doesn't realize. Almost without possible exception, every tax is added to the thing taxed. When you buy that.thing you pay that tax, and all the other taxes that are heaped upon it.

Hidden taxes are well illustrated in a speech made before the House of Representatives in Washington on March 16, 1936, by the Hon. Fred A. Hartley, Jr., of New Jersey, in which he said in part:

"You are paying nearly thirty cents out of every dollar you earn, for the cost of Government. We pay more for taxes than we do for food or for rent, twice as much as we do for clothing, and six times as much as is spent for light and power. You may or may not pay an income tax or a real estate tax, but you are paying it just the same. Everything we buy, not only luxuries but our food and clothing, the very necessities of life, are increased in cost. Let us take a look at some of our hidden taxes.