Incomes average $ll,000

Press, 5 March 1984, Page 8

Incomes average $ll,000

PA Wellington The average income in 1981-82 of people who submitted tax returns was $11,150. This is shown in the first results of a sample survey by the Statistics Department of the 1,711,900 people who furnished income tax returns before April, 1983, for the March, 1982, year. During the 1981-82 income year, 1,268,520 people submitted returns as salary and wage earners. Their average income was $11,970 from all sources.

Self-employed people numbered 143,630, their average income being $12,930. A further 299,760 people submitted returns as investment income earners,

their average being $6850 from all sources.

The survey covered people whose incomes exceeded $11,500 and were legally required to file a return and those on lower incomes who chose to file one.

Income earners who did not submit tax returns, including those with higher incomes, are not represented in the statistics.

Legal practitioners earned an average of $38,850, doctors an average of $36,290, dentists an average of $31,650, and chartered accountants an average of $29,540. The department calculated provisonal incomes for self-employed people for

1982-83. They were: legal practitioners, $41,250; chartered accountants, $32,250; doctors, $43,250; and dentists, $37,450. The Government Statistician, Mr Stephen Kuzmicich, said self-employed people’s incomes usually included an element of return on invested capital as well as a reward for personal work effort