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On the subject of taxes both mail-order men did plenty of grumbling. Said Sears' Wood: "Our tax bill for the fiscal year . . . was $6,535,704, the largest in our history except for the War year 1918, and $2,000,000 greater than for the year ending Jan. 29, 1935. This does not include sales taxes, excise taxes or processing taxes." Said Ward's Avery: "The company is required to file annually more than 1,600 tax returns.* The amount of $5,221,000 (equal to $1.14 per share of common stock) represented the company's direct expense for income, property, and similar taxes."
Coppers— Completing the roster of 1935 reports from the biggest U. S. copper companies, Kennecott Copper Corp. last week announced that gross income rose 25% to $73,000,000, while profits before depletion, the usual method of showing copper earnings, more than doubled—$13,164,000 last year compared to $5,719,000 the year before. Kennecott's copper production was 418,000,000 lb. Observed President Earl Tappan Stannard: "[Kennecott] has large ore reserves well distributed geographically, and its mining properties are presently equipped to produce, and could maintain for many years an output of over 1,000,000,000 lb. of copper per year at a low cost of production."
For last year Anaconda Copper Mining Co. reported gross income of $127,000,000 as against $99,000,000 in 1934. Earnings, however, rose from $1,900,000 the year before to more than $11,000,000. Phelps Dodge Corp.'s sales increased from $36,000,000 in 1934 to $53,000,000 last year. Profits were up from $3,224,000 to $6,147,000. Recently Anaconda and Phelps Dodge boosted the price of copper to 9½¢ per lb., but Kennecott held to the old 9½¢ level. Which price will prevail in this curious division of copper opinion will depend largely upon the foreign demand, which last year set an all-time record. U. S. consumption was still 50% below the 1929 figure.
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*It is estimated that it costs U. S taxpayers $1,000,000,000 annually to prepare, file and prove income tax returns alone.