N.Z. INCOMES

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1930, Page 8

N.Z. INCOMES

ANALYSIS OIF FIGURES

TAXATION STATISTICS.

In the upward trend off the national income of New Zealand there is a decline in the number of incomes in the highest scale of £IOO,OOO and over. The latest returns show that there were 13 incomes of the sixfigure range 'in 1928-29, compared with 17 in 1926. Incomes in the lower ranges have, meanwhile:, been increasing in number and have swelled the total. They have also raised the average.

Although the incomes returned in 1927-28 were nearly 20,000 more in number and nearly £4,000,000 more in aggregate amount than in 1926-27, taxpayers showed an increase of o»l> slightly more than 3000, and the taxable balance actually declined by more fam £1,0)3,15.0. The explanation, states the Government Statistician, jies in the fact that the whole of tin increase is accounted for by incomes under £500.’ Incomes of that amount unci more, particularly in the higher levels, have actually declined.

The inclusion of so many small incomes for the first time in the 1927-28 statistics largely destroys their comparability with earlier years® llie averages' proportions, and other factors are seriously affected. The alteration ,-i.M the ordinary exemption reductions is another factor, affecting exemptions, taxable balance, and lax, and the tax imposed is also increased in the case of certain categories by a change in the gradations of the taxation scale. The figures for 1927-28, however, are quite comparable with those for 1928-29, and it is .interesting to note that a definite increase holds for incomes both under and over £SOO.

The Commissioner of Taxes received 108,286 returns for the financial year 1928-29, the general class, of taxpayer accounting for 103,614. Of those in the general class, no fewer than 33,835 had an income of less than £3OO, and only 1578 of these, absentees, or trustees, or otherwise not entitled to exemplioll) were assessed for tax. Of 69,<79 persons with incomes of £cOO or'over, 46,752 were a-ssessed as having to pay income-tax', the remaining, 23,027 having no taxable balance loft after the various exemptions and deductions had been taken into account.

Of the 3262 companies concerned in the returns, 156 escaped taxation through the application of the capital value exemtpion.

The general class represents tin great majority of the returns, and it occupies a similar position in regard to taxpayers, though in this vesper its proportion of the total is somewhat less,. for example, 91 per cent, as compared with- 96 per cent shown s irs proportion of the returns. The gross assessable income in 1928-29 was £61,026,507} of which £36,363,375 :ranked as earned income, and as:.such became entitled to a reduction of ,10 per cent- in taxation. The taxable balance, after allowing for all exemptions, was £29,535,984, or 48 per cent of the gross assessable income.

Revenue from income tax during the year ended March 31st, 1929, was £3,310,877. /nil's amount is £144, 50D in excess of the total tax shbwn as having been assessed for the same year, the difference being partly due to the imposition of an additional 5 per cent in the event of late payment, partly to the inclusion of arrears in the total of tax collected, and partly to the omission of a few returns from the statistical tables. As an indication of the increase in the assessable, income of New Zealand in the past 15 years, the total in .1.91415 was £13,850,201 ; in 1017-18, £36,645,373; in 1920-21, £48,606.807: in 1925-26, £52,632,488; aind in 199829. £61,026,507. The tremendous increase following 1914 was due largely to currency inflation arising out of war. conditions.

The estimated private wealth per head of population, for persons of 20 years and over, .was £424 in 1914 a.nd £Bl7 in 1928, but taken on the basis of the standard of wholesale prices for 1909-13, the private wealth was £387 per head in 1914. and £525 in 1928.