50 years ago in The Tax Adviser.

• Position: TTA 50 YEARS

Here are some highlights from the April 1970 issue.

Tax planning

Should accountants provide or refuse to provide a tax planning service? Is tax planning of benefit to the community? Are suggestions that it is a crime justified? These questions can be answered only if we understand the meaning of and work involved in tax planning....

[T]he opportunities for tax planning are almost limitless. Only three factors prevent the general practitioner from exploiting the field on behalf of his clients: (a) time, (b) knowledge, and (c) the ability of the client to pay an economic fee.

--K.S. Carmichael, FCA, "Tax Planning--A Service or a Crime?" p. 225. Carmichael was a sole practitioner in London.

Earned income relief

It has been over twenty-six years since the Congress last recognized that the usual earned income should be given special relief from the graduated tax rates. A provision which had allowed a limited earned income credit (not exceeding $1,400) against an individual's tax was eliminated for years beginning after 1943.

New Sec. 1348 provides that under certain conditions an individual's earned income, after prescribed modifications, is not to be subject to a graduated tax rate in excess of 50%. [footnotes omitted]

--Peter Elder, CPA, and James F Kennedy, CPA, "Relief for Earned Income--The 50% Maximum Rate," p. 229. Elder was a partner and Kennedy was a manager in the New York City office of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.

Using paraprofessional help

In view of the increasing cost of labor and the shortage of...