FINANCIAL FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20876, 31 August 1942, Page 4

FINANCIAL FRONT

BRITAIN STANDS FIRM WEIGHT OF TAXATION BIG INCOMES DISAPPEAR (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless. > (2 p.m.) RUGBY. Aug. 30. Britain’s financial front stands firm and strong and has made a vital contribution 'to the war effort, said the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir Kingsley Wood, in a speech in Dundee. This front, lie emphasised, was based on the heaviest possible taxation. borrowing r.L low rates of interest, and the utmost saving. Small savings since the beginning of the war amounted to £1.500,000,000. The budget of 1941 had increased by 4.00!),000. the number of persons on smaller incomes liable to direct taxation and there were to-day some 9,500,000 wage earners and others with small incomes who were making a direct contribution to the war of some £270,000.000 a year through income tax. The weight of taxation to-day, he said, was such that if we were to take away every penny of income, above £2OOO -from those whose incomes at present exceeded £2OOO a year, the gain to the Exchequer would only be about £30.000,000. It was estimated that the number with incomes between £IOOO and £2OOO had fallen since 1938 from 155.000 to 105,000 those with between £2OOO and £4OOO from 56,000 .to 30.750. those between £4OOO and £6OOO front 12,000 to 1170, and those with £6OOO or more to 80. The Chancellor also mentioned that during the last war the rate of interest on war loans increased from 5 to 6 per cent, but in this war we had not paid more than 3 per cent and successive issues had been made on ever more favourable terms to the Treasury than their predecessors.