An Analysis of the Effects of the Processing Taxes Levied Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act

Excerpts from the report Introduction: This analysis is designed to determine the incidence of the processing taxes levied under the provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act on hogs, wheat, rye, cotton, tobacco, corn, rice, peanuts, and sugar. As not all of the facts necessary for a complete analysis are available, it is possible to show only some of the effects of the processing taxes, and in some instances the conclusions are quite tentative and subject to modification on the basis of new facts that may be developed. The collection and use of processing taxes as conceived under the Agricultural Adjustment Act involve two separate and distinct questions: (1) The effects on processors, distributors, consumers, and producers of the collection of processing taxes and the distribution of funds so obtained in the form of "benefit payments" to farmers, and (2) the effects on these same groups of the production-adjustment programs in which farmers participated upon the partial inducement afforded by the benefit payments. Processing taxes might be collected, and benefit payments made, without any resort to production adjustment; and adjustment programs might be conducted and financed without resort to processing taxes. This report deals only with the first of the above questions, which includes (a) the extent to which the processing taxes were absorbed by processors and distributors as a whole, or paid by consumers as an addition to prices that they would have paid had there been no processing taxes, or by producers through a reduction in prices below what they would have been if the program had been financed by means other than the processing tax; and (6) the extent to which "rental and benefit payments” to producers affected their income, aside from any effects of production adjustment upon farm prices and income. Therefore, the analysis is not intended or adapted for use as an appraisal of the effects, advantages, or disadvantages of the production-adjustment programs as a whole.