BRITISH BUDGET

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21697, 26 April 1945, Page 5

BRITISH BUDGET

NO TAX CHANGES EMPIRE DOUBLE LEVY PROSPECT"OF RELIEF ■ i ßritish Official Wlrrfow.) ; (11 aim.) RUGBY, April 25 The maintenance .of the. present rates, of taxation, the conclusion of ;he treaty with the United States regarding, double taxation, the prospect f the complete relief . from double axation within the Empire, were the chief features " of the Budget which ,vas introduced in e crowded House of Commons by. the Chancellor of the exchequer. Sir 'John Anderson. In de,v of the' tremendous, events impending throughout the world, he said he had no firm basis for, many calculations and the Budget might possibly have to be superseded before the year was out. In the year just closed, the total expenditure was- £0,063.000.000, .' or £120,000,000 more than estimated.' A large proportion of the excess, however, arose from expenditure on war damage, but on the revenue side, his expectations were realised: The inland revenue, estimated at £2,000, 000,000, had been passed by £29,000.000. and income tax, estimated at £1.317,000,000, showed an increase of £17,000,000. The excess proOts tax, national defence contributions. and estate duty also showed surpluses. .Bear. duties exceeded expectations by nearly £20,000,000,1 despite the absence of many, consumers on active service abroad. /, J.-.li; “The revenue: expenditure■>exceeded the'estimates by vCtl3,sQQ,f>p.O t arid £125,000,000,; reSpedtiyddy? \M£h ptlie. re-? suit that the expenditure for the year exceeded revenue by. £2,825,000,000, or £11,000,000 less than the Budget stimate, bu' the really significant feature of the 1944-45 Budget was that 53 per cent, of the total expenditure was met from revenue. Pay-as-you-carn Benefit

The pay-as-you-earn system of income tax payment had been a. great benfiet to the employees, , with £540,000,000 received this way during the year, an increase of £100,000,000 over the previous year.

The Chancellor said that negotia tions with the United States had re suited in a double-taxation treaty be tween, the two countries The treaty covered all income liable to tax i both countries. It contained import ant provisions regarding dividends interests, royalties, rents and income from employment. Regarding interest and royalties, provision had bee made reciprocally for complete ex jemption from tax in the country froh’ob the interest and royalties were derived. The treaty applied to roy. ties received by the British film pre ducers for exhibition of their films : the United States. It was hoped tc | conclude treaties of this kind with othfer countries and, first and fore most, we desired to come to ar irrangement with the Dominions vhich would allow complete relief >om double taxation within, the Empire. He had informed the Dominions if the general sense of the agreement vvitii the United States and hoped to be able to open negotiations with the Dominions during this summe' £4,500,000,000 Vote of Credit Dealing with the estimates for thcoming year, Sir John said that h' had to assume that the war in Eur ope would end early in the summe and he proposed a vote of credit fo £4,500,000,000. This would mean th< total expenditure would be £5,565. 090,000 lor war and civil purpose.The estimated revenue was £3,265 ; 000,000, resulting in an excess nenditure over revenue of £2,300,000,000. Sir John said that it impossible yet to know how speedily our fighting men would return or th speed at which the industries'coni' be brought back to a peace .footing. It was estimated that during U war period the amount provided lr way of taxation saving towards fin ancing the Government’s expenditun and whicii would no longer be available for expenditure or, persona’ consumption had been no less than 42 per cent, of the whole persona' income of the community during the period. Discussing Britain’s postwar ir debtedness, the Chancellor mentionr the liberality of American ion'’ lease and Canadian mutual aid R" added: “This does not mean that t> whole of our expenditure in tho'countries is covered in that way. Lb'ear, for instance, we incurred United States dollar expenditure to 'he extent of 1,000,000,000 dollars £ -ash on items, not covered by lend ■vise. This was met from vario 1 ’ sources, Die dollar income includin'substantial personal expenditure of he American forces in Britain • “The best means of liquidating the -onsequences for the part we havf nlayed in the war so as to free the inw of international commerce and tc allow the sterling balance the maximum possible freedom of use is the outstanding problem of post-war -eltlemenl. It would be contrary tc ‘he reputation of his country for fair deeding that we should settle this natter by some unilateral act, with nit preliminary consultation and ’♦tempt to arrive at a settlement vhich all concerned will be able.to egard as reflecting the true facts of the position. At the same time i‘ vould be contrary to the elemental’’ principles of justice and fair deal:ng between nations that obligation' incurred this way should be treated os ordinary commercial debts Burden of Settlement “In .any case, it need not oc thought by anybody, that the fma’ burden upon us of settlement will be tight. .For the fust three years after war I foresee a very heavy deficit on current account and the balance of payments. For imports tho' ore absolutely essential to feed- our neqple and provide raw material for industry, we shall have to-incur fur‘her indebtedness.”

flow much this would be’ depended mi the urgency with which we treated 'he expansion of our export trade, oven- if it meant waiting a little ’onger to satisfy our personal wants '•id on how far we were willing to m force strict economy in external "ash expenditure. Britain would have ’maw obligations in the interests of world security. She would have to •id the reconstruction of her overseas dependencies to enable them ,to build up their own income, improve their