"Intangibles"

Publishers pay good money for memberships in the Associated Press. Newspaperdom is agreed that an A. P. franchise can be more or less definitely priced. But last week in Washington the Federal Board of Tax Appeals ruled that a press association membership has no definite value, is an "intangible asset." Intangible also, ruled the Board, are circulation and "good will."

The decision was handed down in a case brought by Strong Publishing Co., publishers of the Chicago Daily News, against the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Said the Daily News: $220,806.78 excess taxes had the News paid from 1919 to 1921 because the Commissioner had refused to consider the News's Associated Press membership, the News's circulation, the News's "good will" as tangible property.

Said the Board of Tax Appeals: press membership, circulation and "good will," while "factors in the appraisement of the business as a whole," are not "susceptible of separate and independent valuations."

Last April Editor & Publisher (newspaper trade weekly) said an A. P. franchise might be valued at $1.50 per unit of city population: i. e. in a city of 300,000 an A. P. franchise would be valued at $450,000.