When the cotton is finally ready for compression and shipment, this weigher's certificate (No. 1) or the receipt issued in lieu thereof (No. 2) is presented to the compress company, and a receipt is issued for compress and shipment and the cotton goes to the carrier in the usual course of business. This receipt is inclosed and Marked "No. 3." The following is a copy of receipt No. 3: (3.) HELENA, ARK., Received by the HELENA COMPRESS COMPANY, from 189-. bales cotton for compression only, and shipped as per instructions, marked as per margin. Marks, No. bales, Risk by fire excepted. HELENA COMPRESS COMPANY, Clerk. The inquiry is made, Are these receipts taxable? Receipt No. 2 is, without doubt, taxable at the rate of 25 cents. Receipts No. 1 and No. 3 are not taxable unless under them the relationship of warehousemen is assumed. Receipt No. 3 states that it is a receipt "for compression only." If, after compression, the bale of cotton is left on storage and a charge is made for storage, and the only evidence of this storage is receipt No. 3, then it becomes a warehouse receipt and is taxable. This office does not see how receipt No. 1 could become a receipt for storage; but if it is possible, and it does so become a receipt for storage, it is taxable as a warehouse receipt, the ruling of this office being that if the cotton is simply received for compression and shipment and no charge being made for storage, that the receipts evidencing this fact are not taxable. This letter further states that cotton is received from all personsactual producers, purchasers of cotton from actual producers, and others and that it would be impossible for the warehouseman to know, except from the statement of the person presenting the cotton, whether it was actually produced by him or not, and Messrs. Horner inquire how is the warehouseman to know who is exempt under the clause "excepting actual producers?” This office can not advise these gentlemen how to ascertain this fact. The law exempts agricultural products placed on storage by the actual grower thereof in the regular course of trade for sale. If these warehousemen accept cotton for storage from other than actual growers and 12593-19 do not give a warehouse receipt as required, they are liable under the provisions of this statute. This inquiry is also made: Who is required to pay for stamps-the person to whom the receipt is issued, or the warehouseman? This office can not decide this question. Its duty is to require these receipts to be stamped. The law requires the warehouseman to affix and cancel the stamp on all warehouse receipts which he issues and which are liable to stamp duty, and a penalty is prescribed if he does not do so. It is presumed from the law that he should pay the tax imposed, and if he does not do so and exacts the tax from the person storing the goods, etc., this office can afford no remedy. In reference to receipt No. 1, and the fact that the weigher who gives it is appointed by the local authorities, this office holds that if this receipt is required by law to be given, it is taxable at the rate of 10 cents as a certificate. If not required by law to be given, it is exempt, as hereinbefore referred to.1 Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Mr. HARMON L. REMMEL, Collector, Little Rock, Ar (20000.) Stamp tax-Warehouse receipts. Warehouse receipts for cold storage for preservation of perishable commodities not subject to taxation. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., September 2, 1898. GENTLEMEN: Your letter to this office under date of August 26, 1898, is received and hereby acknowledged. You state that you run a warehouse in connection with your business, storing for different people butter, cheese, eggs, beer, etc., in cold storage, and knit goods in cases in dry storage; that you understand the law to read that you must put a 25-cent stamp on every warehouse receipt issued. Many of your mills send you one or two cases per day on which the storage rate is 20 cents, and that, again, one of your customers sends you a case of eggs or a tub of butter, the storage being 10 cents for each, and that you are compelled to pay a war tax on an article the proceeds of which is 10 cents to you. You ask, Do you read the law correctly? If so, the law must be changed or you must go out of business. In reply, you are informed that this office on July 20, 1898, made a ruling that where goods are stored for refrigeration only-perishable 1 It is now ruled that the weigher's certificate is not taxable as a certificate, whether he acts in a public or private capacity. goods that the receipt evidencing this storage is not subject to taxation. The definition of a warehouse seems to be a place adapted to the reception of goods and merchandise to be held on storage, and it does not seem to this office that perishable goods are representative of such a storage. It would seem that commodities such as meats, vegetables, fruits, and the like are sent for preservation and not for storage. It may seem to be difficult to draw the line between these articles and the knit goods in cases in dry storage, of which you speak, yet there is a clear distinction. You are advised that where the articles sent for storage are such articles as meat, vegetables, eggs, butter, etc., and they are sent not so much for storage and safe-keeping as they are sent for preservation, there is no tax imposed upon the receipt evidencing this kind of storage. In regard to the knit goods, this office can not make the same ruling. They are not sent for preservation, as this office understands it, and, be the storage ever so small, the receipt evidencing the same is subject to taxation. This office appreciates your position in regard to the prohibitory effect of this on your business, but can not alter or amend the law. If the knit goods were exempted from taxation, why not any goods? Therefore, this office can not go to the extent of exempting knit goods; neither can it say that the storage charged must exceed any certain amount before the receipt would become taxable. This office has said that when articles as above enumerated are sent for preservation, it is not considered to be such a storage requiring the receipt evidencing the same to be subject to a tax of 25 cents. Your remedy, if there is any, in regard to the knit goods and like unperishable articles, is before some other determining power. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. THE STACEY WAREHOUSE COMPANY, Little Falls, N. Y. WINES. (See also LIQUORS.) (19521.) Stamp tax-Bottled wines. The provision of the act of June 13, 1898, in Schedule B, imposing tax on wines bottled for sale, applies not only to native wines and to wines bottled in this country, but also to wines bottled in foreign countries and imported into the United States for sale. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., June 16, 1898. GENTLEMEN: In reply to your letter of inquiry of the 11th instant, you are hereby advised that the provision of the act of June 13, 1898, in Schedule B, imposing a tax on "sparkling or other wines, when bottled for sale, upon each bottle containing one pint or less, one cent; upon each bottle containing more than one pint, two cents," applies not only to domestic wines and to wine bottled in this country, but also to wines bottled in foreign countries and imported into the United States and sold. Section 24 of the act provides that— Every person, except as otherwise provided in this act, who offers or exposes for sale any article or thing provided for in said Schedule B, whether the article so offered or exposed is of foreign manufacture and imported, or of domestic manufacture, shall be deemed the manufacturer thereof and shall be subject to all the taxes, liabilities, and penalties imposed by law for the sale of articles without the use of the proper stamp denoting the tax paid thereon; and all such articles of foreign manufacture shall, in addition to the import duty imposed on the same, be subject to the stamp tax prescribed in the act. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. CHAPIN, TRULL & Co., New York, N. Y. (19735.) Stamp tax-Wines. Where a customer presents a bottle to be filled with wine, the bottle must be stamped when filled. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., July 20, 1898. SIR: This office is in receipt of a letter from Talcott, Frisbie & Co., wholesale druggists in your city, inquiring whether in a case where a customer calls for a pint of wine, bringing his bottle with him to be filled, it must be stamped. You will please advise them that * * * in the case mentioned the bottle must be stamped. Attention is called to the fact that no exception whatever is made by the law imposing a tax on wines when bottled for sale because of the ownership of the bottle or bottles containing the same, and no limit is fixed as to the number of bottles filled, offered for sale, or sold, to which stamps must be affixed. The fact that the customer brings the bottle with him will not, therefore, relieve it from the necessity of being properly stamped at the time when filled. Any druggists, saloon keepers, grocers, or other dealers who do not usually handle cased goods, should understand that this ruling applies to sales of wine by the bottle, whether the dealer or the customer provides the bottle. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Mr. THOMAS A. LAKE, Collector, Hartford, Conn. (19896.) Stamp tax-Wines. Liability to stamp tax of wines bottled for private consumption of manufacturer, use of employees, and samples furnished to salesmen-Tax on a quart bottle may be paid with two 1-cent stamps. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., August 17, 1898. SIR: This office is in receipt of a letter from A. Werner & Co., of 52 Warren street, in your district, making certain inquiries in regard to the new revenue law as it applies to bottled wines. * You will please inform them as follows: * 1. Bottled wine removed from the premises for the private consumption of the manufacturer does not require stamps. 2. Wine bottled solely for the use of employees, furnished gratis and drunk by them on the premises, does not require stamps. The foregoing answers are based on condition that the element of sale is wholly lacking. 3. Wine given to salesmen to be distributed by them as free samples among the trade must be stamped. 4. A quart bottle may be stamped with two 1-cent stamps. Respectfully, yours, N. B. Scott, Commissioner. Mr. CHAS. H. TREAT, Collector Second District, New York, N. Y. (19942.) Stamp tax-Wines. Wines bottled for storage in bins for aging purposes will not be regarded as having been "bottled for sale" until they arrive at a marketable condition-Wines sold by dealers and delivered in bottles must be stamped. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., August 23, 1898. SIR: This office is in receipt of a letter from Luyties Brothers, of 19-21 North William street, in your city, in which they refer to the correspondence heretofore had by this office with Tysen & Totten in regard to the stamping of wines bottled and stored in bins for aging purposes. Luyties Brothers represent that the better grades of imported wines are totally unsalable and unfit for use unless they remain in bottles for some time, say from six months to five years. These bottles must be kept in bins in vaults where the temperature is comparatively cool and even, and where the atmosphere is always damp, and consequently the stamps would not remain on the bottles, or, at best, they would become moldy and the print on them would become obliterated. Numerous other communications have been received from various representatives |