DOUBLING U.S. INCOME TAX

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 June 1942, Page 7

DOUBLING U.S. INCOME TAX

“CHEAPER TO WIN THAN LOSE

WASHINGTON, March 5

The American people were given an idea to-day of what total war would mean in terms of dollars by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr Morgenthau. He appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee and asked for the doubling of the present income taxes, higher corporation taxes, and new Excise duties on such items as soft drinks and cigarettes. “War is never cheap, but it is a million times cheaper to win than to lose,” he said. The new taxes are estimated to produce an additional £ 1,900,000,000 a year. This would bring the total taxation revenue to some £6,750,000,000 a. year, still making it necessary to raise more than half the expenditure by loan. If Mr Morgenthau’s income-tax proposal is accepted Americans will still pay only one-quarter to onehalf of what men with similar incomes in Britain have to pay. Here is a comparison of the present taxation rates in the two countries for a

payer usually has to pay a State income-tax, but this is only about one-quarter to one-fifth of his Federal tax, so that, even were the tax doubled, he is still very much better off than the British taxpayer.

single man:— Income British American £ 625 £213 £ 37 10 £ 1250 £506 £120 Married man: £ 625 £183 £20 10 £ 1250 £476 £93 It is true that the American tax-