"Time May Have Come. . ."

The British Treasury collected a death duty (inheritance tax) of $5,620,000 last week on the estate of $13,985,000 left by Major Andrew Coats, of the famed Paisley thread-spinning family.

This and the increased taxes of all sorts provided in Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden's Budget (TIME, April 21), stirred to wrath and protest the Englishman who married Miss Helen Vivien Gould (daughter of Jay) and her millions: John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford, fifth Baron Decies, D. S. O., lately of the 7th Hussars, onetime Chief Press Censor for Ireland (1916-19).

"The time may have come," said Lord Decies ominously, "when our wealthy men should seriously consider whether they must send their money out of this country." As Director of the British Income Taxpayers' Association, he vowed that he would suggest to them that "the time may have come. . . ."

Meanwhile, what about the Englishman who has no money to "send abroad." who cannot escape the heaviest taxes on earth? A comparison of what British and U. S. income taxpayers pay is sufficiently astonishing:

BACHELORS

Income U. S. Britain $ 1,000 0 $ 17.75 2,500 $3.75 189.50 5,000 13.13 659.75 10,000 90.00 1,690.25 15,000 285.00 2,543.00 25,000 922.50 5,854.50 50,000 4,250.00 16,682.00 100,000 14,930.00 42,210.75 250,000 50,930.00 127,114.50 500,000 110,930.00 277,066.50 1,000,000 230,930.00 577,066.50

MARRIED MEN*

Income U. S. Britain $ 1,000.00 0 0 2,500 0 $134.25 5,000 $5.62 558.50 10,000 52.50 1,588.75 15,000 225.00 2,313.50 25,000 862.50 5,705.75 50,000 4,190.00 16,458.25 100,000 14,870.00 41,974.50 250,000 50,870.00 126,875.75 500,000 110,870.00 276,796.50 1,000,000 230,870.00 576,796.50

In addition to these taxes, levied by the national government, Americans pay certain local taxes and in 16 of the States are liable to State taxation; each Briton must pay much higher and more various local taxes or "rates." No account is taken of the numerous deductions in both countries by which a citizen in special circumstances can reduce his taxable income appreciably.

Thus a married but childless Englishman with the modest income of $5,000 pays more than a tenth of all he earns to the State ($558.50), or almost 100 times more than a U. S. citizen in the same circumstances ($5.62).

In the million-dollar-a-year class the Briton (married or single) pays more than half he earns in income tax alone, while the U. S. citizen (married or single), who makes $1,000,000 a year is allowed to keep more than two-thirds of it. In both countries deductions for wife and children amount to only the merest trifle on an income of $50,000 or more. The million-a-year bachelor, in either country, is as well off from the tax standpoint as the million-a-year father with a big family of children.

* In the U. S. the taxpaying father of children deducts from his taxable income the sum of $400 for each child. In Great Britain he deducts -L-60 ($300) for the first child plus -L-50 ($250) for each additional child.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.