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[To understand correctly the arrangement of the matter in this Compilation it is desirable to read the following:]

PREFACE.

Since December 1, 1873, the date to which the revision and consolidation of the laws in the Revised Statutes of the United States refer, twenty-seven acts and joint resolutions relating to internal revenue have been passed. By these enactments numerous and important changes of the internal-revenue law have been made.

Many of these acts were not in the form of specific amendments of the Revised Statutes, and, because of this fact, even those of them which were enacted prior to March 4, 1877, are not found in the Revised Statutes, edition of 1878, which gives the text of only the specific amendments made prior to that date.

Long before the passage of the recent act of March 1, 1879, the need of a complete Compilation of the internal-revenue laws had been felt; but as many of the amendments made by that act had been for several sessions before Congress for consideration, with the expectation, from session to session, that they would be enacted, it was considered inexpedient to prepare and issue a Compilation which might so soon be rendered comparatively useless by the expected changes.

The passage and approval of the act of March 1, 1879, however, removed that difficulty, and soon afterward the preparation of this Compilation was commenced. The work has been done, under the direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, by Messrs. William H. Armstrong and Charles W. Eldridge, of the Internal Revenue Office.

It is hoped that the officers and employés of the internal-revenue service, for whose especial convenience this Compilation has been prepared, will find it full, accurate, and reliable. If they, or any person, shall discover any error or omission in the work, it is desired that information thereof be communicated to the Commissioner, in order that correction may be made in any subsequent edition.

The plan adopted has been to take for the body of the work Title XXXV of the Revised Statutes, as amended, preceded by the statutes relating to the organization of the Internal Revenue Office.

In foot-notes at the end of Chapters are certain sections of the Revised Statutes not in Title XXXV, which it seemed important to place thus, rather than in the Appendix.

Incorporated with Title XXXV, in their appropriate places, are the various specific amendments made thereto, printed in italics, omissions being indicated by asterisks; and, also, in appropriate places, according to the subject, are the various amendments and additions which, although

not in the form of specific amendments to any particular section, appear to belong where they are now placed.

Occasionally a word is printed in brackets, indicating that, although not in the original, it is necessary to the sense.

As a rule, all the new matter in Title XXXV is printed in italics, with references on the margin to the acts making the changes. Two exceptions, however, have been made to this rule of printing new matter in italics, namely: where the amended portion of a section has itself been subsequently amended, the words last inserted have been printed in small capitals; and, again, the Special Bonded Warehouse Act of March 3, 1877, and sections 11, 12, and 13 of the act of March 1, 1879, which relate to "Imported Liquor Stamps, &c." are printed in roman, because they are entirely new features of the law, and have no direct connection with any particular section of Title XXXV.

A special feature in the plan of this Compilation is that, for convenience of brief reference, section numbers in brackets are introduced, such as "[Sec. 3281]" and "[Sec. 3293 a]," &c. In these cases the number is not intended to indicate that it exists in that form in the Revised Statutes; but it is given-for convenience of reference only-to a subsequently enacted section or provision of law, printed in italics, with a reference to its date in the margin, which subsequent enactment is understood to be in effect amendatory of or additional to that section of the Revised Statutes the number of which is thus adopted, or, if not relating directly to that section, seems to belong, in its proper order, immediately after it. When persons refer, in correspondence or otherwise, to sections numbered in brackets, as before described, it is desired that the words "Compilation of 1879" be added; otherwise, the date and section of the original act, as indicated in the margin, should be given.

Where a section of the Revised Statutes is printed wholly in italics, this indicates that the words so printed have, by an act the date of which is given in the margin, been substituted for those of the original section, while preserving the original number.

Following Title XXXV is an Appendix, giving sections of the Revised Statutes relating to internal revenue, but which are not in the Internal Revenue Title, nor in the part of the Compilation relating to the Organization of the Office; and also giving other sections of a general nature but of use in the administration of the internal revenue laws, taken as well from the Revised Statutes as from subsequent acts.

The text of the laws has been carefully compared with the Revised Statutes, "edition of 1878," with the Statutes at Large, or, as to acts not at the time published in the latter form, with the official copies of those acts issued by the State Department, and has been made to conform thereto, including the punctuation. In a few instances, however, specially noted, where there was an obvious error in the later edition of the Revised Statutes, the correct word is given from the original edition.

The marginal notes of the contents of the sections are mainly those of the Revised Statutes. In a few instances where the latter were obviously incorrect, and in a considerable number of cases where more full and definite notes seemed desirable in a Compilation like this, such notes are given. The synoptical tables of contents preceding the several Chapters have been necessarily changed to conform to the changes made in the marginal notes, and also to indicate the new matter added.

Following this Preface will be found a Schedule of Articles and Occupations Subject to Tax under the Internal Revenue Laws in force March 4, 1879; a List of Acts relating to Internal Revenue, enacted since July 4, 1861, and prior to March 4, 1879; a Table showing in what Sections of the Revised Statutes were incorporated the sections or portions of sections of the original internal revenue acts in force December 1, 1873, and a List of the Commissioners of Internal Revenue since the organization of the Internal Revenue Office in 1862.

Acts relating to internal revenue, passed by the first session of the Forty-sixth Congress while this Compilation was going through the press, will be found at the close of the Appendix.

An Index will be found at the end.

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