HUGE TAX RETURN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21604, 5 January 1945, Page 4

HUGE TAX RETURN

INCREASE OVER 1943 FIVE DAYS’ WAR COST HECTIC PROSPERITY (Special Correspondent.) (9 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. There was a big increase in the income-tax paid in Britain during the last nine months of last year. The total was £595.512,000. an increase of £81,328.000 over the same period of 1943. This increase is sufficient to pay for the war for five clays. National expenditure has outpaced the revenue, and flic estimated figure for the full year is £5.940,394,000. More than £200,000,000 in cash was counted by bank officials at the end of the financial year. This is the highest figure in British banking history. The note circulation was increased by £50.000,000 last month, with the result that many unused green notes, which were stored in 1940 and have since been replaced by blue notes, are now in circulation again. During the last year, it is reported, practically every share on the Stock Exchange rose in value, and it is estimated that as the result that £1.000.000,000 has been added to the £21,000.000,000 of securities of all kinds quoted. The rise is reported to be clue to expectations of an early end of the war in Europe, which would enable companies to resume peacetime operations. Black-market dealings are reported to have increased the activities of burglars and thefts of clothing, furniture. tobacco and food are now said to be common. They are so common in fact that insurance companies are refusing all new business that does not yield a premium of £1 per annum or more. It is estimated that burglaries for the black-markpt have risen by 60 per cent. Manufacture for export is now being permitted in some industries. Sheffield cutlery makers have been told that they can resume so that stainless and other steel will be available for overseas orders. Other minor releases are carpets, aluminium, and ennmelwarc. Britain now lias 15.000.000 apple trees, and despite the drastic pruning ot orchard space during the war, the number of trees has increased by over 3,000,000 during the last two decades. There are over 7,000,000 Cox’s orange pippin trees. .