TAXES EXCEED INCOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17956, 5 December 1921, Page 8

TAXES EXCEED INCOME.

i tm i LEAD MINEOWNER'S CASE. ■ HIGH RATES IN BRITAIN. J Some striking instances of the burden of taxation operating in Britain were given yesterday by the Hon. E. W. Alison, M.L.C., who has just returned from a trip abroad. Mr. Alison said he found that local taxation was extremely heavy and oppressive. The average rate in the administrative County of London (exclijding the city) for 1920-21 was 14s 4d, an increase of 45 per cent, on the previous J year. In one county the taxation ' amounted to £30 per head for every man, . woman, and child. As an outcome the ' stately homes of England were being sold , and great estates broken up, the increased , rates and taxes, cost of labour, decreased ' value of money, and death duties making it impossible for the owners to carry-on. Mr. Alison referred to 1 some figures recently cited in the House of Commons. In a large agricultural estate in Scotland which had a rent roll of £42,496 in 1920, management and maintenance expenses amounted to £19,229, leaving a net income of £23,267. On this income tax. rates,, and statutory burdens, including clerical stipends, amounted to . £22,800, leaving to the owner only £467.1 ; The owner of a, lead mine in Lancashire received £2718 in royalties and, after- paying income tax and super tax, rates, min- , eral right duty, and excess profits duty, he was £4 out jpf pocket.