Mr. Bernard Shaw's finances seem to be creating a rather
inordinate amount of interest in various quarters. When the will is published a good deal of curiosity will no doubt be satisfied. Meanwhile here is a small contribution. In an article by Vincent Sheehan in this month's Atlantic Quarterly is printed a letter from Shaw to Mr. Sheehan's wife, Diana Robertson, in 1949, containing among other things the observation " I am taxed 19s. 6d. in the pound to a point which leaves one only a subsistence income." On that it may be observed, first, that Shaw himself had been among the foremost advocates of the most drastic taxation, and, secondly, that it is only on any income in excess of £20,000 a year that taxation (income tax plus surtax) rises to 19s. 6d. On the first £2,000 of his income Shaw would pay no surtax at all, £50 on the next £500, £112 10s. on the £500 after that, and so on. It would need some not very abstruse calculation to determine what a man with an income of over £20,000 a year would have left after paying income tax and surtax. It would be nothing to complain about, and quite enough to enable a reasonably careful citizen to save substantially. And in earlier days Shaw's income was probably larger, and taxation certainly far lower.
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