A satirical 1930 income tax calculation including tax relief for a wife and goldfish

The WSJ published this simple formula for computing how much income tax one of its readers had to pay in 1930:

• Dependents: one blonde wife, a sedan car, three goldfish and two children.
• Multiply grandfather's age by 6 7/8, subtracting your telephone number.
• Add hat size and subtract license plate number.

With these preliminaries done, the rest is easy.

• Deduct $1,000 for keeping wife a blonde the whole year, divide the remainder by number of lodges belonged to, multiply by number of electric lights in house, and divide by collar size, giving gross income, which, after dividing by chest measurement and subtracting blood pressure, leaves net amount owed to government.

According to News from 1930