Mr. Herbert Samuel, addressing the Statistical Society on Tuesday, raised
a question of urgent importance when he pro- posed an inquiry into the distribution of the burden of taxes. He said that, while the war had doubled the share of taxation borne by the working classes, it had trebled the share borne by the middle class with earned incomes from £500 to £1,000 a year, and had placed still greater burdens on the richer class. He showed that earned incomes from £2,000 to £5,000 had been taxed most heavily of all, in proportion to their amount. The ordinary professional man has of course been hit very hard indeed, without being able to recoup himself by striking, like the workman, or raieing his prices, like the manufacturer or merchant. The truth is that in the press of war our old system of taxation has been strained to the uttermost and is no longer fair or just. A complete remodelling of the Income Tax is one of the first tasks that Mr. Chamberlain ought to set himself in this Ago of Reconstruetion.
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