WEALTHIEST CHILEAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1936, Page 14

WEALTHIEST CHILEAN

STATE TAKES 75 P.O. OF INCOME

Miss Adriana Cousino ranks as the richest Chilean. Her position has received considerable publicity of late (states the “Christian Science Monitor”), because she consented to the publication of details of her income to demonstrate the increasing burden of national taxation and to prove the fallacy of the Socialist contention that (he rich were exempt from payments which bore- heavily on average living standards. Miss Cousino has revealed only her income. Her actual capital worth is estimated at 200,000,000 pesos (25.000,000 dollars), much of which is in real estate.

Her income last year was 4,751,122

pesos (approximately, 600,000 dollars), of which sum she iiad to hand to the Government 3,126,933 pesos covering ordinary, complementary and excess income taxes and .special imposts levied for unemployment and on spinsterhood. That was approximately 75 per cent. The financial statement, as presented by Miss Cousino’s attorneys and accepted by the income tax authorities, reveals that 248,500 pesos was devoted to charities, and of the remainder, 368,000 pesos went to| augmenting her capital. Miss Cousino has been extolled for the courage she has shown in divulging her personal receipts and expenses to reinforce the case of the taxpayers in revolt against the destruction of capital. As the foreign loan market is closed, Chile has to rely on her own efforts to accumulate capital for public improvements. It is claimed that this is impossible under the existing tributary regime.