BRITISH MILLIONAIRES

Evening Star, Issue 19002, 25 July 1925, Page 2

BRITISH MILLIONAIRES

MORE THAH SIX HUNDRED

MANY INCOMES OF OVER £IOO,OOO

How many millionaires are there in Great Britain? No one knows for certain (writes the Sydney ‘Sun; correspuudeut), but the latest statistics with regard to income tax, published by the Inland Revenue Commissioners, makes it possible to form a fairly accurate estimate. These statistics show that 529 people paid tax on incomes in excess of £50,000 a year, and that 284 others received incomes of between £40,000 and £50,000. On a 5 per cent, basis the recipient of £50,000 a year has a capital of £1,000,000. It is probable that some of the 529 people who paid tax on incomes over £50,000 a year arc getting a higher return than 5 per cent, on their capital, which would mean that their- capital does not amount to £1,000,000. On the other hand a return of o per cent, from gilt-edged securities is fairly high, even in these days of dear money, and therefore it is probable that some of the 284 taxpayers receiving between £40,000 and £50,000 a year are worth more than £1,000,000. The big landowners of Great Britain, among whom are included many of the holders of ancient peerages, do not get a. return of 5 per cent, from their land. Before the war the return on agricultural land in England was below 2 percent. . , , A moderate estimate based on the figures of the Inland Revenue Commissioners would place the number of millionaires in Groat Britain as between 600 and 700. Some of them arc multi-milionaires, for the official figures show- that there are 134 persons receiving incomes in excess of £IOO,OOO a year. On a 5 percent. basis £IOO,OOO a year moans a capital of £2.000,000. The Inland Revenue Commissioners refuse to satisfy public curiosity as to the number ol people who have incomes of over £150,000 a year, and whether there are any enjoying rncomes in excess ol £250,000 'a year. They are all lumped toe-ether in the 134 receiving more than £IOO,OOO. , „ , But the official return shows that the ar«Tegato incomes of these fortunate 134 was £26,261,000. This gives an average income of £196,000 for each ol thorn, SO it is safe to assume that many of them have incomes of over £‘20(1,000 a vear, and that some have a groat deal more. In other words, there are probablv over 100 people in Great Britain ■\vor th over £4,000,000. ENRICHED BY DEATH. Millionaires in Great Britain have to pay nearly half their annual incomes to'the Treasury in the form ol income tax: and when they die the Jreasnvv takes 30 to 40 per cent, of (be- tola value of their estates for succession and legacy duties. Estates between £p 000,000 and £1,250,000 in value pay 30 1 per cent., and estates exceeding £2,000,000 pay £4O per cent. Grom succession duties (which are levied on a sliding scale on all estates ol over £IOO in value) the Chancellor ol the Exchequer receives an average revenue I of £50,000,000 a year. If millionaires, iu their determination not to die, managed to let twelve months pass without anv diminution in their number, thorn would ho a substantial diminution in the revenue, and the Cbaneolior ol the Exchequer would not bo able to balance | his Budget at the end of the year. I But, although statistics over -a long period show that millionaires in Great Britain ha ve acquired , the habit , ol ox- | reeding the Biblical in nil of “three-' score years and ten ” by five years, they j dio with such commendable regularity i that the Chancellor of the Exchequer counts on getting succession duties on ten millionaire estates in the course of each year. In 1922 twenty millionaires died,'(lie wealthiest of theny being Sir Ernest Cassel. who left a fortune of over £6,000,000, which paid £2,440,000 to the Treasury in succession and legacy duties.