INCOME TAXES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 37, 13 February 1943, Page 5

INCOME TAXES

Fifty Per Cent Increase In

Middle Group

AUSTRALIAN IMPOST

•NZ.P.A. Special Correspondent (Rec. 9 a.m.) . SYDNEY, this day. Under the new financial measures introduced in the Federal Parliament the Commonwealth income taxes on some income groups are as follows: — Taxpayer Without Dependants.— Income £200, £21 9/; £400, £95 4/; £600, £178 7/; £800, £265 5/; £1000, £355 4/; £2000, £951; £5000, £3530. Taxpayer With Two Children. — Income £200, tax nil; £400, £46 5/; £600, £118 6/; £800, £199 3/; £1000, £285 2/; £2000, £862; £5000, £3432. The taxation rises are proportionately highest in the middleincome groups, from £400 to £1500 a year, where the average increase is about 50 per cent. Attention is called by the Melbourne Herald to the "Disproportionate" taxation on the higher and middle incomes. It says that "Nearly 3,000.000 wage-earners with incomes under £400 a year—many of them youths with few responsibilities— are receiving wages amounting to £950,000,000, of which less than £29,000,000 is taken by the Government in taxation." Pointing out that in thousands of households entire families are now earning incomes, which leave a large surplus for spending over family needs, it declares, "Taxation of family incomes is a practical proposal, which would go a long way to preserve that balance between wages and prices which is becoming the crux of Australia's financial problem."