Income tax statistics

Abstract

In reading this paper I realise that I have to try to make it interesting not only to those who are already well informed on the Income Tax code, but also to those who are possibly not; I have, moreover, to consider not only those who are interested in Revenue statistics for the sake of those statistics merely, but also those who are looking for broader information on the subject of national income and distribution of wealth. I shall try to meet all these points of view as much as possible, and in doing so I hope to bring to light some of the more salient features of interest which are hidden away in the Revenue Reports. It will be necessary, in the first instance, to define the nature of the income and the method of determining the amount of that income as we find it included in the various Revenue Tables. The Reports available cover the years 1923-24 to 1929-30 inclusive, and, therefore, finish with the last year before considerable simplification had been introduced by legislation. From the year 1930-31 income assessed under Schedules D and E can be taken as that earned in the preceding year, so that the way of the statistician will be made much easier by knowing exactly that the days of various bases of assessment ceased with the year 1929-30.