Mr. Asquith asked in what way other than that proposed
in the Budget the wealth represented by the signatories of the protest could be called upon to contribute its proper share to the national expenditure. In Prance, under the proposed Income-tax Law, an income of four thousand pounds would pay le. 5d. in the pound. Here it would pay is. 3d. In France an income of twenty thousand pounds Would pay practically the same as here,—namely, le. 7d. In Prussia, in the chief cities, the Income-tax payable to the State and municipality on incomes of five thousand pounds was already 2s. in the pound, or 10 per cent. If the new Prussian financial proposals were carried, the amount would increase. He did not think that people with incomes between three thousand and twenty thousand pounds a year would find themselves better off if they emigrated to Germany or France. The most glaring anomalies in our Income-tax bad been removed, and with an untroubled conscience he now regarded it as a permanent part of our fiscal system. When some further amendments had been made in the law, he believed the tax would be capable of still wider expansion in an emergency. It would be a mistake to suppose that our Income-tax was actually le. in the pound, for the average rate last year was 9id. Under the now proposal the average rate would be under 11d., and if the super-tax were included it would be nia.,—" an extremely moderate sum."
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