WHY IT WAS DROPPED

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 138, 11 June 1920, Page 7

WHY IT WAS DROPPED

EXCESS PROFITS TO BE TAXED

GREAT SACRIFICES OF THE RICH.

(ONITEr PRESS ASSOCIATION COPXxIQBT.)

(HEMTIII'S TELEGRAM.)

LONDON, Bth June.

In the House of Commons Mr. Au3ten Chamberlain (Chancellor of the Exchequer) explained the Government's decision not to . impose a levy on war wealth. He jpointed out that as the payment could be made mi Government securities, the levy would not materially reduce the floating- debt. He emphasised th« fears of business men as regards the effect of the levy, and stated that the excess profits duty would produce twice as much as the levy in the same period. He now proposed to maintain the exce3s profits duty at 60 per cent, this year, and continue the duty or an equivalent for a longer period than otherwise would have been necessary. Mr. Chamberlain paid a warm tribute to the' manner in which the rich had borne financial sacrifices, and gave figures showing that in some cases only about five shillings in the pound were left to the recipients of large incomes after the taxes had been paid. No other country had attempted a financial effort comparable with Britain's, and there was no other in which well-to-do peopie were co heavily taxed.