INCOME TAX SHOCKS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15466, 10 March 1921, Page 9

INCOME TAX SHOCKS.

(.'RUSHING - DEMANDS. LONDON, Jan. 11.—In clubs, in the train, in the streets, wherever men meet and exchange- conversation, there is to-day one dominant topic—the income tax and super-tax and how to pay tlifSm. The little buff envelopes containing extortionate demands .are proving to the public that their pockets arc* icing searched as never betore. ■ During the war these tuxes were not so much felt because fho rates were not so heavy. But now it is a. matter in some part of providing money for Government- departments to squander, and tliero is_ much less alacrity to. pay. 'J fie trade “‘boom’! has .passed, and many Rave not the cash to meet the crushing demand inotes which are, with characteristic Government-. indifference to tlie interests of the taxpayer, sent in at llie most inconvenient season of the year, when bills are heaviest. Super-tax payers find themselves mulcted in gigantic amounts which have >to be paid without I delay and in one instalment. MOST HEAVILY TAXED NATION. The Bntisli people is now by far me most heavily taxed nation in the world. The fact is revealed by the Brussels Conference return of last -year, winch gives the taxation-per head as follows: Great Britain.£22, .United States £l3, France £9, Germany £3, Japan £1 K?», Italy £1 lCs. t •' • It is a pleasant kind of surprise for the nation to find that it is paying seven times as.heavy taxes per head as the Germans, who lost the war, though | there, is a special- clause in. the peace ■ treaty requiring “the German scheme of taxation to' 'be : "fully as heavy proportionately*’ -as that of any of the Alii and though on. December 11, 1918; Mr. Lloyd George assured an overflow meeting at Bristol, ‘Those who started it (the war) must pay to the ntlemi“«t farthing, and wo shall search their pockets for jt.”