The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-28
THE INCOME TAX

These figures are those which must be paid by men whose profits have nothing to do with government work, but if the profits are earned from gov ernment contracts and are in exvess of the prewar profits, MT. McKenna points out that taking income tax, super tax and excess profits tax to- gether, rich man may be called on to surrender 77 per cent of his income to the state. In any case, the very rich man will have to pay heavily even If his profits are not earned from war work. For instance, a man whose in- come is $5o000 a year. whether earned or unearned. will have to pay $16,4O0 In income tax and the man with $250,- 900 year will have to pay $101, 400. In addition to increasing the old | taxes, MT. McKenna has introduced some interesting new taxes which will add material yto the revenue and at
 the same time have the effect of reduc- ing more or less useless imports. For | instance, he has doubled the tax on or dinary motor cars and trebled it on the higher powered cars, which con- sume the largest quantities of petrol He has even applied this principle to the humble motor bicycle, by only doubling the tax on lightweight ma chimes and trebling and quadrupling it on the higher powered machines. In- cidentally this tax if persisted in, will probably drive the American motor- cycle out of the British market alto gether, for practically all the Ameri- l can machines imported are of the high CT powers. Thus a four horsepower machine only pays a tax of $10 year | under the new budget. while seven l horsepower will have to pay about $25. TAX ON MATCHES
 l An entirely new tax which will hit
 
 | It amounts to S7 cents per 10000 matches and will just about double the
 price of the ordinary household
 matches. If the matches are home made the tax will be cents less, but
 nearly all the cheap matches used here l come from Sweden. The housewife will also feel the additional tax of 1 cent 1 a pound on sugar, the additional duty l of cents a pound on cocoa and of 6 cents pound on coffee, while every
 body will be hit by the taxes on rail- l way journeys and amusements. The railway tax is roughly cents on every "A cent ticket, and the amusement tax, 1 which applies to theatres. cinemas, horse races, football matoves and in fact, every sort of amusem<-x where entrance fees are charged, Will begin with l cent on cent ticket and rise to 25 cents on a $1.75 ticket with an extra 25 cents on every additional $25O This tax alone is estimated to bring in $25, 5,000,00O, and it is believed by ma-ne agers that it will yield a great deal
 more, in spite of the fact that nearly 100000 of the nations young manhood are under arms at home or abroad.
 One of the mild surprises of the budget Is that there has been no addi-
 tional tax on beer, wines and spirits
 Some of the teetotal advocates were disposed to criticise the goversnent for
 this and to talk wildly about the influ-
 ence of the liquor interest at West
 minister. The fact is, that Mir. Mex enna
 is after revenue and not prohibition
 and he found on investigation that the existing taxes had reached that point where additional taxation would mean a serious decline in consumption and a consequent loss of revenue He has
 however, made the teetotaller pay by
 clapping a swinging tax on mineral waters and soft drinks. Those made with sugar will pay a tax of cents a gallon, and those without sugar a tax of 16 cents gallon. The reason for this difference is that those made with sugar have already paid stiff tax on the sugar they contain.
 From the purely financial point of view the budget is intensely interesting as showing the unbroken financial ! strength of England in spite of the tremendous cost of the war Assum- ling that the ordinary peace exprndi.
 ture will continue on the same scale
 after the war and adding the required