More rich, rewer poor — statistics

Press, 28 August 1978, Page 6

More rich, rewer poor — statistics

PA The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting fewer, according to tax figures released by the Department of Statistics. They show marked drops ■ in the number of persons' earning less than $5OOO and big increases in wage-earn-; ers and self-employed earning more than $60,000. The number of self-em-j ployed persons reporting j losses on their tax returns! has fallen steadily in thethree years covered by the] statistics. The number of reported losses fell from 3000' in 1974-75 to 2100 in 1975-1 76 and 1500 in 1976-77. In the same period the! number of self-employed persons rose from 139,510 to] 140.280 and their average in- ■ come from $6462 to $8560. i The number of self-em-; ployed persons earning more] than $60,000, the highest! classification in the tables,

■almost doubled from 150 to, 280 in the three years. The number of salary and! wage-earners in that class also jumped from 300 to 550 and the number earning more than $20,000 went i from 4900 to a little more ,'than 12,000. At the other end of the scale the number of wage- ' earners with taxable in- > comes of less than $5200 fell I about a fifth to 781,000 in 1976-77. Most of these; 1 moved into the $5OOO-to-i j $lO,OOO bracket, in which' j the number of tax-payers] | rose by 200,000 to 589,000. I Many also moved higher, ! the number of salary earners 'getting from $lO,OOO to ; $20,000 jumping from 38,000 i to 87,000 two years later. While some low-income, I self-employed persons also moved into the $5200-to-I $20,000 brackets the most I startling increase was above jthat figure. In 1974-75, 4910 (persons earned more than $20,000. Two years later

, there were 9680 in that class.! Sheepfarmors recorded the; 'biggest increase in taxable! incomes, going from an: average of $5850 in 1974-75 1 to $10,300 in 1976-77. Other 1 farmers recorded much slow-! er growth, from about $5OOO to $6500 in the three years. Professional men, consistently the highest taxableincome earners as a group, all bettered themselves but; not spectacularly. For doctors of all types, ! average taxable incomes (went from $22,500 to i $24,600 in the three-year period. Dentists went from a $16,000 average to $19,900, lawyers from $18,500 to $22,800, and accountants] from $15,300 to $18,200. 1 Builders’ incomes gener-| ally did not keep pace with inflation. They rose from a taxable average of $Bl5O to! $9700 in the period. The Statistics Department! says that the figures are; provisional and could be revised.