DEATH DUTIES.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13598, 7 October 1914, Page 8

DEATH DUTIES.

LARGE INCREASE.

The death duties collected on ©states left to strangers in blood since 1909-10 have been as follows: — Year. Under £500. Over £500. £ £ 1910 359 30,031 1911 1,222 22,630 1912 990 17,010 1913 226 18,477 1914 340 27,235 Totals £3,139 £115,385 The following return shows the death duties collected since the amendment of the Act hi 1909 :— Year. Under £500. Over £500. £ £ 1910 1,886 181,388 1911 4,577 254,640 1912 4,292 394,152 1913 3,906 . 437,913 1914 1,416 586,287 Totals £14,079 £1,839,382 When the return was tabled in the House of Representatives. Sir Joseph Ward said the figures bore out the opinion he had expressed when lie made the alteration in the death duties, that the revenue therefrom would pay for the Dreadnought within a comparatively short time. The increase since 1909-10 was £444,000, which was very satisfactory. Mr. Massey: And yet you say you never increased taxation. Sir Joseph Ward: We took the burden off the shoulders of the smaller estates and put it on the wealthier people, and that was why I was subjected to such bitter criticism. The increase is nearly three times as great) as the interest and sinking fund on the Dreadnought, in addition to which we now have a system of death duties in force under which the wealthy people cannot escape their just obligations to the State.