WAR COSTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1941, Page 4

WAR COSTS

HALF OF BRITAIN’S INCOME. The British Government is now taking nearly 60 per cent, of the national income of the United Kingdom, and about 50 per cent, of it for war expenditure. British tax returns are eight times as great as at the outbreak of the World War. The basic rate of British income tax is now 42.5 per cent., the highest in the nation’s history, and the excess profits tax is in many cases 100 per cent. The British Government pays from 2.5 to 3 per cent, for the money it borrows. A 3 per cent, rate is paid by the British Treasury on seven-year national defence bonds, and a 3.17 per cent, rate on 10-year national savings certificates not subject to income tax and cashable on short notice. A few months ago the British Government floated a seven-year loan at 2| per cent.

All trades or businesses pay either a 5 per cent, national contribution tax, if they are corporations, and 4 per cent, if they are not incorporated, or the 10 per cent, excess profits tax, whichever is higher. There is a purchase tax of 24 per cent, on the retail price of specified luxuries such as furs, real silk, lace, china, and toilet preparations, and 12 per cent, on the retail price of such, goods as clothing, footwear, and domestic hollow-ware.—Urcited States Department of Commerce review.