More Taxes Coming
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is to introduce a Supp mentary Budget next Tuesday and impose additional taxati Since national expenditure has now gone up by L2,000,000 day since last March and now stands at nearly £3,500,000, a year, it is clear that something more must be done if an thing like half of the total is to be met out of current revenu In his Budget last April Sir John Simon estimated for a reven of £1,234,000,000 this year (not counting Excess Profits Tax or £1,262,000,00o in a full year. Sir Kingsley Wood can har hope to devise new taxes to the tune of L400,000,000— amount required to bring revenue up to the half of total e penditure—but he will certainly require taxpayers to make further effort, even though to some of them it may seem trying to squeeze blood out of a stone. His plan, if it is succeed, must be directed in such a way that it will not cut from savings for war investment what it raises by taxation and since his biggest opportunity lies in securing more of increased earnings resulting from war-production, it is evid that it must fall both on big and small earners, and that neith rich nor relatively poor can hope to escape. He may get so thing out of Income Tax, but that will not go far towards mee ing the deficit. Be may get more by modifications of t Purchase Tax—a tax abundantly justifiable if, but only if, it judiciously applied. The Chancellor will be wise to avoid pet and purposeless irritations like the proposed tax on books.
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