HIGHER TAXATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 131, 3 May 1940, Page 7

HIGHER TAXATION.

AUSTRALIAN BUDGET. INCREASE OE £20,000,000.. CANBERRA, May 2. New taxation was announced by the Federal Treasurer (Mr P. C. S2>ender) when presenting the Budget in the House of Representatives, to day. He said the increases in income tax would yield an extra £4,000,000, of which £3,000,000 would be collected during the next financial year. He pointed out that this would represent about a 50 per cent, increase over the whole field. Exemption from income tax would remain at £250 for single men and £4OO for married men with two children. Two new company taxes would he introduced to provide almost £5 000.000 between them, while the present land tax rates would he doubled. The sales tax would rise from 6 per cent, to 8 1-3 per cent., yielding an additional £5,000,000. Increases in Customs and Excise duties are expected to produce an' extra £5 300 000 and estate duties an extra ;L,j10,000. Mr Spender added that the now taxes affecting business would be described as a wartime company tax and a tax on undistributed profits. Neither of these would apply to the goldmining industry. The estimated additional revenue to be obtained next year bv the foregoing proposals totals £20,000 000. of which £lO 300,000 is from indirect taxation and £9,700,000 from direct taxation. Mr Spender anticipates borrowing from the public in the current financial year £50,000,000. Mr Spender said the wartime company tax to yield £4.250 000 would be 4 per cent, on companies earning 8 per cent, and rising to 60 per cent, on earnings in excess of 22 per cent. The tax on the undistributed profits of companies was estimated to yield £450 000 and would amount fo a shilling in the £. Increased Customs and excise duties to yield £530 000 would include 3d per gallon on petrol. The total war commitments of Australia in the next financial year would be £79,000,000, bringing the total for the fir-t, two years of the war to

£125,000,000.