Accounts Deceivable

A much-kneaded ball of dough on the U.S. breadboard is the expense account. Suspicious that thousands of people collect more than a few crumbs with every outlay for business expenses, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service decided to try to police a longstanding rule that taxpayers report the excess of reimbursements over expenses. Last year IRS put a line on the 1957 tax form for reporting reimbursed expenses, hastily gave taxpayers a year's moratorium after a howl rocked the very foundation of expense-accountland, sent martini glasses aquivering from Manhattan's gay "21" restaurant to Los Angeles' sporty Romanoff's.

Last week IRS quieted things again by developing a newer, more sensible proposal for the future: only the taxpayers who draw expense money and do not have to account to employers for expenses must report the facts and figures on their income tax returns. Those who do settle up with employers can go on as always, living a way of life that enables a man to support himself in the style to which his employer has become accustomed.