FEDERAL TAXES.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 25 July 1933, Page 13

FEDERAL TAXES.

CONSIDERABLE REVENUE. ANALYSIS OF AUSTRALIAN POSITION. x ock otrn conr.ssroKDMT > SYDNEY, July 13. A great financial harvest has been garnered by the Federal Government in Australia. It is just revealed that during the last seven years the Federal Government collected in revenue £516,000.000. Some of this, of course, has been on the earnings side of its business undertakings, and some of it has been collected on behalf of the states, but most of it has been in the form of taxation, the yield from that source being £390,618,000. Of that indirect taxation provided the bulk, customs, and excise and sales tax accounting for £278,402,000. What the taxpayer is particularly interested in, however, is the fact that he parted with £80,256,000 in the seven years by way of income tax, £18,037,000 in land tax, and £8,793,000 in probate and succession duties, a grand total of £107,076,000 in direct taxation to keep the Commonwealth and its institutions going. Many persons think that federation has been an expensive matter, particularly as there is so much overlapping in the activities of the states and the Commonwealth. Tiie need for closer cooperation, showing the way to greater economies, has often been stressed, but to date little has been accomplished in this direction. Where the Money Goes. Since 1926-27, war services and pensions cost £189,000,000, invalid and old age pensions £73,500,000. defence £. 29,561,000, other Government departments, mainly for administrative expenses, £48,838,000. The Treasury in seven years has cost more than £13,000,000 to lun. The Federal Parliament h a « cost nearly £3,000,000, and whether it shows a profit is problematical. Last year the Governor-General cost the country £22,299, compared with £38,547 in 1928-29. Practically all the Government departments have had their votes cut during the last three years, but it is notable that their savings have been afanoct solely confined to those possible as a result of the operations of the Salaries Reduction Act. However, it is some satisfaction to learn that a saving of about -£200,000 a year has been effected as far as the Federal Parliament itself is concerned.