TAXATION LOAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1939, Page 3

TAXATION LOAD

MUCH HEAVIER IN GERMANY THAN IN BRITAIN. TREMENDOUS CALL MADE ON REICH WORKERS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 11. Though the weight of direct taxation is now greater than ever before in British history, the burden borne by British individual incomes is not, according 1o estimates recently made, so great as that under which the German workers are struggling. In Britain no income tax is paid by a married man with two children till his income exceeds £3OO a year, but in Germany a married wage-earner with two children pays 12s on a £lOO income, £ll 14s on £2OO and £23 8s 6d on £3OO. The British taxpayer with a similar family and earning £5OO a year pays but little more than one-third of the the amount extracted from his German counterpart, and on all incomes up to £7OO the German tax is more than double. On reaching the higher income levels the incidence of the British tax is heavier than the German. The comparison, which is taken at the rate of 20 marks to the pound, is thought by competent commentators to show a large reserve British taxa-

lion capacity, whereas, unless the Government is unfairly taxing working class incomes. Germany must be within a short distance of the maximum direct, taxation point.