PEOPLE'S INCOMES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 41, 4 March 1937, Page 6

PEOPLE'S INCOMES

jOnly Four New Zealanders Receive £9000 XAXATION & EARNINGS An Interesting summary of the range of Incomes in New Zealand is provided by the tables of income for the year 1935-36, as retirrned for tax purposes, which. appear in the latest Abstraet of Statistics. - lt is' shown that four individuals have incomes of £9000 and over a year, compared with eeven with "incomes of betweea £10,000 and £30,000 in ihe previous year, A total of 770 pereons received incomes of between £2000 and £9000, against 831 in the previous period. The returns relate to 133.952 individuals, ihe incomes of all others being •xOmpted from inoome-tas either faeeause they earn less than £200 a year #c because various allowances reduce their iaxable income to below £200. Details of Returns, - Ihe following table gives the respectxre numbers of returns made by indiTiduals and companies at various ineome levels: —

The column headed "Taxpayers" inficates the numbers ,of individuals in each grade who wer© found liable for income tax after the various ©xemptions had been allowed. Mort Hfgfwr Wage-earners, r One rather remarkable feature is the increasingly large., number of incomes, 3118, between £1000 . and £2000. This is more than three times the number between £900 and £1000. A possible explanation is that £1000 a year is a point of demarkation between the high-er-paid wage-earners and the owners of what might be termed substantial businesses in trade and industry, either personal or incorporated. Another probability is that the £1000-£2000 class includes a number of the more prosperous professional men. The large proportion of companies with incomes under £200, which totalied 1703, indieates the growing habit in New Zealand of incorporating smaJl fausipesses or forming companies to undertake minor enterprises. The number of companies. , 476, with incomes between £1000 ad £2000, probably bears a relatxon to the number of personal incomes between those limits. individual Tax Assessments. The following table shows the total aBsessable income and the total tax asaessed for certain significant classes of individuals : —

The total assessable income of individuals was £47,207,965 and the tax assessed was £1,445,316. This is spread mainly over the lower income groups. The figures for the previous year were £43,333,819 and £1,443,132 respectively- 1 Th© total assessable income of companies was £11,909,611, and the tax assessed was £2.806,823, compared with £9,518,369 and £2,175,069 in the previous year.

( CornTaxpayers panies Hader £200 5,742 1703 300 16,068 354 300— - 400 • 17,822 278 400— 500 10,073 211 500 — 600 51,477 209 |600 — 700 3,160 149 800 1,971 120 8O0L— 900 1,357 95 900— 1,000 941 73 I; 000 — 2,000 3.099 476 • SfefiOO- 3,000. 524 179 $-000— 4,000 139 129 S£Q0O* 5,000 71 63 5,000— 6,000 18 . 40 6,000— 7,000 11 23 sTSOOO— ' 8,000 — 18 8,000— 9,000 — 15 9,000 and over 4 — 9,000— 10,000 — 12 10,000— 20,000 — 82 80,000— 30,000 — 34 80,000- 40,000° — 14 40,000- 50.000 — 7 60,000—100,000 — 33 100,000 and over — 15

Assessable Tax Income Assessed Under £200 ... £349,421 £15,772 £200—300 ... 18,203,858 31.401 300— 400 ... 8,876,244 73.896 400— 500 ... 4,732,178 82,551 600—1000 ... 897,867 63,689 1000— 2000 ... 4,182,344 418,974 2000-3000 ... 1,243,256 190.323 3000-4000 ... 477,300 94,991 4000—5000 ... • 310,728 67,999 7000—9000 ... 49,247 15,121 9000 axxd over . . . 40,535 12,553