Executive Order  No. 44: (1st Series) Federal income tax withholding from state and local government employees

WHEREAS, the Government of the United States by subchapter D of the Internal Revenue Code, inserted in said Code by section 172 of the Revenue Act of 1942, has provided for the levy and collection of a victory tax, so called, and as a part thereof has provided that deductions shall be made by employers from the wages of certain employees, including employees of the Commonwealth and any political subdivision thereof, in payment in whole or in part of such tax; and

WHEREAS, there is doubt under existing law as to the authority of the treasurer or other official having charge of the pay rolls of the Commonwealth and the political subdivisions thereof to make such deductions in accordance with the provisions of said act; and

WHEREAS, the Government of the United States, acting through the office of the Com- missioner of Internal Revenue, has requested that appropriate action be taken forthwith to make the provisions of said act effective in so far as the Commonwealth and the political sub- divisions thereof may be affected thereby; and

WHEREAS, the withholding and transmitting to the Government of the United States of certain deductions from the wages of certain employees of the Commonwealth and the political subdivisions thereof in accordance with the provisions of said act will aid in the prosecution of the war by making funds immediately available to said Government.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the provisions of Acts of 1941, chapter 719, section 7, Acts of 1942, chapter 13, sections 2 and 3, and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this order as a measure necessary and expedient for meeting the supreme emergency of the existing state of war between the United States and certain foreign countries.

The treasurer or other official having charge of the pay rolls of the Commonwealth or of any of the political subdivisions thereof is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to withhold on each pay day such amount of the compensation of every employee on such pay rolls as may be required by and in accordance with the provisions of subchapter D of the Internal Revenue Code inserted in said Code by section 172 of the Revenue Act of 1942 and such rules and regulations as may be made thereunder, and to transmit and pay said deductions to the Government of the United States in accordance with the provisions of said subchapter D and said rules and regulations.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and sixty-seventh.

By His Excellency the Governor,
LEVERETT SALTONSTALL.

FREDERIC W. COOK,
Secretary of the Commonwealth