A HAND-BOOK OF THE U. S. TAX LAW, (APPROVED JULY 1, 1862,) WITH ALL THE AMENDMENTS, To March 4, 1863: COMPRISING THE DECISIONS OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, TOGETHER WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS. FOR THE USE OF TAX-PAYERS OF EVERY CLASS, AND THE OFFICERS OF THE REVENUE OF ALL THE STATES AND TERRITORIES. COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES. LY AMASA A. REDFIELD, COUNSELLOR AT LAW. THIRD EDITION. NEW YORK: JOHN S. VOORHIES, 20 NASSAU STREET. 1863. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by AMASA A. REDFIELD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. BAKER & GODWIN, PRINTERS, 1 SPRUCE STREET, N. Y. PREFACE. THE object proposed in this volume is to present the tax-payer with a convenient and reliable Handbook of the Internal Revenue Law, passed at the second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and as subsequently amended. It is presented to the public solely as a handbook, and can make no claim to being an exhaustive treatise upon the statute. It is confidently believed, however, that the statements of the provisions of the statute are absolutely reliable, and that the arrangement of the work in the form of an Index or Digest will add to its usefulness. Where the compiler has thought it necessary, he has volunteered opinions of his own, but with caution,-choosing rather to rely upon such decisions and regulations as have been issued by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. In addition to these regular decisions, the Commissioner has given written answers to a great number of questions put to him by tax-payers, which have appeared from time to time in the current newspapers. These are quite as authoritative as the regular decisions, and are incorporated in this volume. It was attempted, for uniformity, and for convenience of reference, if necessary, to cite but one paper-the New York Daily Transcript-as containing these decisions; but where that paper has failed to publish them, other papers, in which first noticed, have been cited. The compiler would deem it a favor, if any errors which may be noticed in this volume, or any additions of value, could be suggested to him for a revised edition. NEW YORK, March 23, 1863. PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. In presenting to the public a third edition of this manual, the compiler takes the opportunity to explain that the latest decisions and regulations of the Bureau are incorporated in each successive edition. He is, also, in active correspondence with many of the assessors and collectors of the revenue, and learns from them more fully the practical working of the law; so that, while it is attempted to state clearly the requirements of the statute, the practice and procedure of its enforcement are also given. Some of the peculiar features of the present edition are the references in the body of the book to the page in the Appendix on which the amendatory provisions may be found; the enlargement of the Index, and the insertion of the late and important regulations and decisions of Com'r Lewis. In this connection, special attention is called to chapters on the income duty, page 180, and to the new scale of stamp-duties on promissory notes on page 311. The success which has attended the work encourages the belief that it has been found generally useful and trustworthy, and, in its convenience for reference and greater amount of information, to excel all others now before the public. |