WHO PAYS MOST TAX?

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 190, 13 August 1934, Page 4

WHO PAYS MOST TAX?

SOURCES OF PUBLIC REVENUE. Details of taxation receipts from all sources for the year ended March 31 are as follow, the figures for preceding terms being shown for comparison:— 1933-34. 1932-33. 1931-32. £ S £ Customs and beer.. 7,140,478 6,785,641 0,545,423 Motor vehicles . 1,703,527 1,680,605 1,814,186 Land 498,078 498,916 542,128 Income .. 2,961,243 3,556,775 4,447,814 Death [ duties .. 1,390,742 1,511,695 1,444,298 Bank composition . 279,244 208,122 260,200 Duty on Instruments 199,639 192,179 228,972 Totalisatot 340,740 302,371 410,878 Amusem'ta 48,715 53,564 74,703 Other stamps . 372,780 301,050 378.28S Unemployment .. . 4,413,221 4,090,062 1,217,451 Film hire . 32,960 30,102 41,207 Sales tax . 1,847,333 38,253 — Gold duty . 117,090 15,036 — In tc re st tax ..... 45,000 — — 21,470,827 19,703,703 17,405,622 The total shows an increase of £1,767,124, or 9 per cent, and amounts to £13 18/7 per head of mean population, as against £12 17/9 laat year, and £11 9/6 in 1931-32. The sales tax more than accounts for the increase, while unemployment taxation is now second only to Customs revenue, and amounts to 50 per cent more than the income tax. The following figures give the percentage of the total contributed by each of the main items for the past years, compared with 1914:— 1934 1933 1932 1931 1914 Customs 33J 34J 37J 431 00 Motor S 8i 10J 93 — Lan( l 2 24 3 6 13 Income 13g 18 25J 21 9J Death 0i 73 8 01 104 Unemployment . 201 203 7 14 Salea 84. ■— — _ _ Other 74 8 8J 9 7 Up to 1917 Customs was easily the main form of taxation, and it was only in 1916 that it produced less than half the total, while in 1904 it was 74 per cent of the total. The peak of taxation was reached in 1920-21, due to heavy Customs duty on the excessive importations and heavy income tax, and the latest year is only 3 per cent below that' year's total. Customs has contributed the largest share except in 1917 to 1920 and 1922, when it was exceeded by income tax.