Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1923 MOTHER COUNTRY’S BURDEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2660, 17 November 1923, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1923 MOTHER COUNTRY’S BURDEN.

MR J. ELLTS BARKER, llm wellknown publicist, in Iho Aligns!, 1923 number of “Current TTisW.v,” gives so mo remarkable details of “Englnnil’s Gigantic Tax Burden’’ and the inciilen.ee of (lie taxation at the heart of the Empire. The estimates of England's National income upon which this taxation is levied vary hut Mr Barker thinks that £3,000,000,000 represents the total annual income at. the present moment. Of this sum one-third is handed over to the Post Office and tax collector. The taxation raised before the war and since the attainment of peace is shown, for certain years, in this table: — Year £ 1913-14 198,243,000 1920- 1,4 39,985.000 1922-23 914,012,000 In addition to the revenue raised by the Imperial Parliament there is that raised by the local authorities. The figures for England and Wales alone are given by Mr Barker:Year £ 1913-14 71,276,000 1921- 173,000,000 1922- 159,000,000 It will he seen that municipal taxation has more than doubled since the pre-war year, ‘'ll we add local and National taxation,” Mr Barker points out, 'hi appears that fnllv one-third of the National income or more is claimed bv the various tax collectors, and that the average Englishman works eight months of the year for himself and four months for the community.

“Before the war, the normal income tax fin England) came to a shilling in the pound of income received. During the war, it was rapidly raised to six shillings in the pound, and at the last budget statement it was lowered from five shillings in the' pound to four and sixpence in the pound. In other word., the normal income taxpayer pays four shillings and six pence on every pound of income lie receives. The less well-to-do are given various allowances in accordance with their position, means, and responsibilities, while the more fortunate have to pay an additional income tax which U called super lax and which is imposed on income of £2,000 and more,” .... “In-

come tax begins with a fraction ol one per cent, on small incomes, and rises to about 50 per cent, in the case of very large incomes.”

Coining to the Estate and Succession duties, Mr Barker (piotes the official scale as demonstrating that at the owner’s death, property pays from one to 40 per cent, to the tax gatherer. “The Estate and Death duties arc,” he comments, “merely a kind of income and super tax which has to he paid only once in a while, and if yearly provisions for the Estate and Succession duties are made, the total income tax is brought up in many cases to 60 per cent, and more.”

He traces the improvement ol.' the English gentry, and describes the English method of taxing the dividends of companies “at the source.” Income tax secured in 1913-14 the sum of £47,249,000; (lie same form of taxation, with enormously increased rates, secured £379,045,000 in 1922-23 —an eight-fold increase. Luxury taxes also yield huge sums, especially those on alcoholic drink and tobacco. The tax on home pro-, duced spirits has risen from £19,500,000 in 1913-14 to £51,000,000 for the current liuancial year (estimate) and That on beer from £13,500,000 to £121,000,000. The growth, Mr Barker remarks, in the drink bill, of the United Kingdom is due not to increased consumption, but to the increased taxation on less consumption, in this connection he

says: —“In reality, the consumption of beer and spirits lias declined in the most extraordinary manner, and the bulk of the money spent on drink and tobacco goes to the Treasury in the form of various taxes. Jl is difficult to make an estimate hut T think that ‘out of every sixpence spent on alcohol and tobacco approximately fivepeneo goes to the Slate.' "

Per head of population, the British debt is four times as great as the National debt of the United Slates. The British interest hill lias grown from roughly £.37,000,000 in 19.13-14, to £363,438,000 in 192223. Social legislation (Poor Law, Pensions, Health, etc.) which in ]B9l cost the British taxpayer £25000,000, now cost him over £400,000,000 a year.

“Overtaxation endangers England’s industrial position” is the lesson Mr Barker draws. The lesson is one we should give more attention to in New Zealand. and Australia. Overtaxation is n danger everywhere.