EXHIBITIONS AND SHOWS. (20486.) Special tax-Exhibitions. A boxing exhibition to which an admission fee is charged is a public exhibition for money, even though no profit is derived therefrom, and special tax is required to be paid therefor. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 3, 1899. SIR: I have received your letter of the 29th ultimo, concerning the demand notice which has been served upon your club to pay a special tax of $5.83 for a "boxing event" given by the club December 22 at the opera house in Fairmont. You request that a ruling be made by this office that it is unnecessary for you to pay this tax, on the ground that in giving the boxing match you had "to hire the opera house" because you had no suitable place of your own, and that you "charged an admission fee not for the purpose of profit." There is nothing in the language of paragraph 8 of section 2 of the act of June 13, 1898, imposing a special tax on proprietors or agents of public exhibitions or shows that confines this special tax to such shows as are given for profit. The language is "for money," and it matters not, therefore, whether any profit was actually derived from the exhibition or show or not, so far as the question of special-tax liability under this paragraph is concerned. In the opinion of this office, the exhibition of boxing given by the Fairmont Club, for admission to which a fee was charged to the public, is a public exhibition or show for money within the meaning of the statute, for which it is imperative that the special tax shall be collected. Your request, therefore, can not be complied with. As to the billiard tables in your club, for which you were not required to pay special tax, by reference to the law (paragraph 9 of section 2 of the war-revenue act) you will see that special tax is only required to be paid for billiard tables which are "open to the public with or without price." Billiard tables in a club, not being open to the public, it is clear, do not come within the meaning of the statute. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Mr. WILLIAM S. STEVENSON, Vice-President Fairmont Athletic Club, Fairmont, W. Va. (20499.) Special tax-Exhibition-Skating rinks. Where the admission fee charged for a skating rink is merely to entitle the persons paying it to the privilege of skating, special tax is not required to be paid therefor; but where it entitles them to witness the exhibition of skating, it is a public exhibition or show for money for which special tax is required to be paid.-Special tax is required to be paid for "indoor baseball" exhibitions and "crystal maze" exhibitions to which an entrance fee is charged. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 4, 1899. SIR: In reply to your letter of the 28th ultimo, you are hereby advised that "indoor skating rinks" or "ice skating rinks," if the admission fee charged therefor is to entitle persons paying it to the privilege of skating, and not to witness an exhibition of skating, are held not to be public exhibitions or shows within the meaning of paragraph 8 of section 2 of the act of June 13, 1898; but an "indoor baseball" exhibition or a "crystal maze" exhibition to which an entrance fee is charged is such a public exhibition or show, and special tax is required to be paid therefor under that paragraph. Respectfully, yours, Mr. V. FLECKENSTEIN, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Collector Twenty-eighth District, Rochester, N. Y. (20500.) Special tax-Opera house. The proprietor of an opera house in a town whose population is less than 25,000, who himself gives no exhibitions therein, is not required to pay any special tax therefor under section 2 of the war-revenue act. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 5, 1899. * * * SIR: In reply to a letter addressed to this office on the 22d ultimo by Mr. R. A. Williams, of Wadesboro, N. C., you will please inform him that a manager of an opera house in a place whose population, he says, "is less than 1,500," and who does not himself give exhibitions in his opera house, but merely rents it to theatrical or concert companies for exhibitions given by them, is not required to pay any special tax under the second section of the act of June 13, 1898. Giving no exhibitions himself, he clearly does not come under the eighth paragraph of that section, and, therefore, is not required to pay the ten-dollar special tax thereunder; and being the manager of an opera house, in a town having less than "twenty-five thousand population as shown by the last preceding United States census," he is, by the terms of paragraph 6, exempt from special tax under that paragraph. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Mr. H. S. HARKINS, Collector Fifth District, Asheville, N. C. (20501.) Special tax-Concert company. A concert company giving an entertainment, with regular charges of admission (not for any church, charitable, or other public object), is required to pay special tax under paragraph 8 of section 2, act of June 13, 1898. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 5, 1899. SIR: Your letter of the 28th ultimo has been received, inclosing a protest made by the manager of a "lyceum bureau" against your action in collecting special tax and penalty from the Schubert Glee Club. You say: The entertainment was a professional one, with regular charges of admission, and a purely money-making enterprise on the part of those composing the organization. Upon this statement of facts, this office approves your action in collecting special tax from this company under paragraph 8 of section 2 of the act of June 13, 1898, together with 50 per cent penalty for failure to make the prescribed return within the calendar month in which the liability began. Reading paragraph 6 of this section together with paragraph 8, it is the opinion of this office that it is the intent of the statute to include concert companies among those shows for which special tax is required to be paid; and it is held that such companies giving concerts for money (not for any church, charitable, or other public object) must be required to pay special tax under paragraph 8. Respectfully, yours, Mr. A. B. WHITE, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Collector Internal Revenue, Parkersburg, W. Va. (20504.) Special tax-Exhibitions. Where an amusement company has several different companies playing at the same time at several places in the same State, separate special tax is required to be paid and a separate stamp taken out for each. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 6, 1899. SIR: Your letter of the 31st ultimo has been received, reporting that the agent of the Carter Amusement Company, on the 18th of October last, paid special tax for a public exhibition in the "State of Florida at large," and "stated at the time that the Carter Amusement Company had ten or twelve different companies on the road, all owned and operated by the said Carter Amusement Company, and that each of those companies was entitled to perform in this State under the one special tax stamp." You say: It appears that the former collector informed him that he was correct. revenue. You are hereby advised that the information thus given him was entirely incorrect. There is no foundation for it under any provision of the war-revenue act or under any other statutes relating to internal Each of these companies, playing in any State, must have with it the requisite special-tax stamp for that State, in order that it may exhibit it to any revenue agent or deputy collector calling for it. If the stamp is not so held, the manager of the company becomes liable to criminal prosecution. If the proprietor of the Carter Amusement Company had ten companies beginning performances in the State of Florida, in the month of October last, at different places, a separate special-tax return should have been made to the collector for each of these companies, and a separate special tax should have been paid under paragraph 8 of section 2 of the act of June 13, 1898, and a separate stamp issued to each. Respectfully, yours, N. B. SCOTT, Commissioner. Mr. JOSEPH E. LEE, Collector Internal Revenue, Jacksonville, Fla. (20543.) Special tax-Exhibitions. The requisite special-tax stamp is required to be held for entertainments given for money by quartettes and concert companies for the profit of those concerned therein. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 11, 1899. SIR: Your letter of the 23d ultimo has been received, requesting a ruling from this office with reference to the special-tax liability of lyceum bureaus, lecturers, readers, quartettes, and concert companies. This office has already held that lecturers and readers, exhibiting no stereopticon or other pictures or illustrations, although the public are charged a price of admission to hear them, do not give a public exhibition or show within the meaning of the eighth paragraph of section 2 of the act of June 13, 1898, and, therefore, that special tax is not required of them under that section on account of their lectures and readings. But as to quartettes and concert companies, whose entertainments are given for money, for the profit of those concerned therein, it is held that each of these companies must hold the requisite special-tax stamp under paragraph 8 of section 2 of this act for each State in which such entertainments are given, unless such exhibitions are given only in a theater or opera house, in a large city, whose proprietor holds the hundred-dollar special-tax stamp, or unless the local bureau, or the person under whose auspices the entertainment is given, in any town, holds the requisite special-tax stamp under paragraph 8. Respectfully, yours, Mr. GEORGE W. WHITE, Boston, Mass. (20609.) G. W. WILSON, Acting Commissioner. Special tax-Lecture bureaus, etc. Special tax is required where lecture bureaus or other like organizations send out lecturers giving stereopticon or other illustrations, or where concert or other companies give exhibitions for their own pecuniary profit. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Washington, D. C., January 24, 1899. SIR: Your letter of the 20th instant has been received, inclosing a letter addressed to you by the representative of the Women's Club of Mendon, Mich., relating to the question of the special-tax liability, under the war-revenue act, of clubs and others under whose auspices entertainments are given by "home talent." Section 2 of the act of June 13, 1898, after providing for payment of special tax by proprietors of theaters, museums, and concert halls in cities having more than 25,000 population, and by proprietors of circuses, requires, by the terms of paragraph 8, that "proprietors or agents of all other public exhibitions or shows for money not enumerated in this section shall pay ten dollars." It is held by this office that this provision of paragraph 8 does not contemplate the payment of special tax for entertainments given for church or charitable or other public objects, or for school exhibitions, singing school entertainments, or other like exhibitions or shows which are not given for the pecuniary profit of the individuals taking part therein. But where lecture bureaus or other like organizations send out lecturers giving stereopticon or other illustrations on the stage, or concert companies, or any other companies who give exhibitions for their own pecuniary profit, these lecturers or companies should bring with them the requisite special-tax stamp, under paragraph 8, for the performances to be given by them, even though their exhibitions are given under the auspices of a local club. Respectfully, yours, G. W. WILSON, Acting Commissioner. Hon. J. C. BURROWS, United States Senate. |