PRIVATE INCOME

Evening Star, Issue 22414, 11 August 1936, Page 5

PRIVATE INCOME

AGGREGATE INCREASE EXCESS OVER PRODUCTION An estimate of the aggregate private income for the year 1934-35 has now been made and is published in the latest issue of the ‘ Abstract of Statistics.’ It shows that there was an increase of more than £3,000,000 over the previous financial year, which was £10,000,000 above’the year 1932-33. There was a decrease in income-other than salary and wages subject to the emergency charge by more than £l-, 500,000. The figures for the last two years are as follows, the 1933-34 figures being given in parentheses after the 193435 figures:— Wages subject to the emergency charge, £61,200,000 (£57,300,000) ; other income subject to the emergency charge, £27,400,000 (£29,000,000) ; wages of persons under 20, £1,100,000 (for 41 months —no estimate for the previous year); wages of exempt relief workers, ' £2,500,000 (£2,800,000) ; wages of domestic servants, £900,000 (£1,000,000); other exempt income of women, £3,5(X),000 (£3,100,000) ; other exempt income of Maoris, nil (£1,000,000); undistributed company income (including income tax payments), (£3,500,000- (£3,500,000); pensions under Pensions Act, £1,800,000 (£1,800,000); other exempt income, £l,200,00() (£500,000;) totals, ' £103,100,000 (£100,000,000). “ It is estimated that in a full year wages of persons under 20 years of age would aggregate £3,000,000, and £l,100,000 has accordingly been taken for the 44 months of 1934-35 during which wages, of such persons were exempt,” the Abstract states. “ Some of these persons were formerly covered by the domestic exemption, the 1934-35 figure for which has consequently been reduced by £IOO,OOO. Maoris now being subject to the same provisions as Europeans, the special exemption of other income of Maoris ceases to apply. The exemption of ‘ other ’ income of women having been raised from £2O to £SO. the aggregate income under this head has been increased somewhat in the estimate.

“ The exemption of ‘ other ’ income of men over 65 and women over 60 where the total income is under £lO5 adds an estimated total of only £500,000 to the residual heading ‘ other exempt income,’ most of such persons being in receipt of pensions under the Pensions Act, covered by the preceding heading. Sustenance payments of £240,000 are also included in the residual group for 1934-35. “ The slight fall in 1934-35 in the amount of ‘other’ income subject to the emergency charge is in keeping with the fall in the estimated value of production lor that yeaV, while the rise in wages income and total income further exemplifies the point made last year that there is no fixed relationship between the value of production and the aggregate private income in years of moving values, and particularly when there is a change in the direction of the movement. The income figures are for the year ended March 31, and the production figures are for the production vear, which corresponds approximately to the 12 months ended),

June 30. There is, in any case, a lag between production and the receipt or income from that production, and an even longer period elapses before changes in the volume of income from material production permeate through, the community and lead to similar changes in the incomes of business and professional men, wage and salary earners, etc.

“ In 1933-34, when the value of production rose by £15,000,000, part of the enhanced return would be used to reduce the leeway that had necessarily occurred during the two or three preceding years in regard to maintenance work and the meeting of financial, obligations.” The value of production for 1934-35 was £97,000,000. The absolute difference between private income (£103,100,001)1 and production was therefore £6,100,000, or 6J per cent. V