PEOPLE’S INCOMES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4960, 25 February 1937, Page 5

PEOPLE’S INCOMES

NEW ZEALAND FIGURES. LARGE ESTATES DISAPPEAR. An interesting summary of the range of incomes in New Zealand is provided by the tables of income for the year 1935-36, as returned for tax purposes, which appear in the latest Abstract of Statistics. It is shown that four individuals have incomes of £9OOO and over a year, compared with seven with incomes of .between £IO,OOO and £30,000 in the previous year. A total of 770 persons received incomes of between £2OOO and £9OOO, against 831 in the previous period. However, as the returns relate to only 133,9.52 individuals out of a population of over 1,500,000, they do not provide an index to the incomes of more than a fraction of the people. Details of Returns. The following table gives the respective numbers of returns made,by individuals and companies at various income levels:— Com-

The column headed “Taxpayers” indicates the numbers of individuals in each grade who were found liable for income tax after the various exemptions had been allowed. More Higher Wage-earners. One rather remarkable feature is the increasingly large number of incomes, 3118, between £IOOO and £2000.* This is more than three times the number between £9OO and £IOOO. A possible explanation is that £IOOO a year is a point of demarcation between the higher-paid wage-earners and the owners of what might be termed substantial businesses in trade and industry, either personal or incorporated. Another probability is that the £IOOO-£2OOO class includes a number of the more prosperous professional men. The large proportion of companies with incomes under £2OOO, which totalled 1703, indicates the .growing habit in New Zealand of incorporating small businesses, or forming companies to undertake minor enterprises. The number of companies, 476, with incomes between £IOOO and £2OOO, probably bears a relation to the number of personal incomes between those limits.

Under Taxpayers. £200 5,742 panies. 1,703 £200— 300 16,068 354 300— 400 17,882 278 400— 500 10,073 211 500— 600 51,477 209 600— 700 3,160 149 700— 800 1,971 120 800— 900 1,357 95 900— 1,000 941 73 1,000— 2,000 3,099 476 2,000— 3,000 524 179 3,000— 4,000 139 129 4,000— 5,000 71 63 5,000— 6,000 18 40 6,000— 7,000 11 23 7,000— 8,000 — 18 8,000— 9,000 — 15 9000 and over 4 — 9,000— 10,000 — 12 10,000— 20,000 — 82 20,000 — 30,000 — 34 30,000— 40,000 — 14 40,000— 50,000 — 7 50,000—100,000 — 33 100,000 and over — 15 Totals . . . , , 66,483 4,332