WHERE TAXES ARE HEAVIEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7133, 25 June 1901, Page 2

WHERE TAXES ARE HEAVIEST.

SOME UNFORTUNATE COUN,'TRIES. It has been said that when a man is unhappily circumstanced he derives a sort ol grim satisfaction from the knowledge that t^ere is somewhere another unfortunate whose case is even worse thanj (his own. If this allegation be well founded, the English taxpayer, who has be-an fuming and fretting recently ;on account of the iiv creased burdens plaoed upon- him b$ the ! Budget, should fed greatly comforted when he learns that he is not taxed anything like so heavily as other Europeans. Take the Italians, for example. Their accumulated taxes are a positive nightmare. An Italian pays away in taxes 22 per cent of his earnings, compared with tno Englishman's 9.3. The population, of Italy is ten millions less than that of Great Britain, i and yet the income tax in the former counI try is made to produce- as much as in. the United Kingdom. An even more striking comparison is that between Russia and Italy. Russia has a population o-f 93,000,000; Italy has only 30,000,000, and yet the total inoome tax is the same in .'both countries. Italy has a debt of £500.000,000, which is growing at the rate of £14,000,000 a year. The only j way the Italians can escape t&e taxation is j to emigrate, and this they are doing in considerable numbers. France has only £20,000,000 more taxes ! than Great Britain. Each inhabitant pays 11s a year more than anyone lucky enough to be living in the United Kingdom. Moreover, an Englishman's earnings are greater than those of a Frenchman. The latter devotes 13.6 per cent ct his income in maintaining his country. • The German is nnidh better off than his Gallio neighbour. He pays in taxes nearly 30s a year less, or only 10.4 of his earnings. Another .proof of the prosperity of Great Britaia is that, whereas each subject of the Fatherland contributes £1 a year less 'to the revenue than an Englishman, he really parts with 1 per cent more of hi* ■wages. Hollanders are more 'heavily taxed than we are. Substantial taxes are imposed on I such necessaries as sugar, sa'.t, soap, and beef. The result is that each resident of the country of canals must needs set aside 15.1 per cent of nis inoome to meet the requirements of the national expenditure. 1 Although Austria only .requires each of her subjects to pay about £1 10s a yea*", this modest, sum works out at a 'higher percentage of the people's earnings £han is the case in England. : The total taxes of Russia amount to only £77 000,000. This astonishingly small sum is half that of Franoe, £40,000,000 less than that of tibe United States, £33,000,000 less than that of Germany, and even £6,000,000 less than that of Italy. But Finland is the paradise of the taxpayer. The Finns pay about 13s per inhabitant. Happy Finns !