ENG-1947 — Page 47

registered with any public authority or public officer or payable by any person carrying on trade, profession or business in the Colony and allowable as a deduction in assessing his Profits Tax. There are certain exemptions, such as interest payable to a corporation, since such interest would be subject to tax as part of the profits of the Corporation. Salaries and Annuities Tax is the only one which is charged on the individual, and in this case. certain personal allowances are granted and the rate of tax is graduated. In order, however, to grant personal allow- ances to those who are prepared to disclose their personal business interests, a right to elect to be personally assessed is provided. Upon such an election, personal allowances similar to those under Salaries and Annuities Tax are made. The standard rate of tax for 1947/48 is 10%. The profits of corpora- tions are taxable at the full standard rate whatever their amount may be.

Profits of unincorporated businesses amounting to under $7,000 are free from tax. Otherwise, with certain allowances they are subject to the full standard rate. end of 1947 collections of tax under the new Ordinance were as follows:

Profits Tax

Property Tax

Salaries & Annuities Tax Interest Tax

Total

By the

$2,267,455.47

1,813,157.29

108,962.40

158,187.81

$4,347,762.97

Collections were adversely affected by the difficulty experienced in obtaining adequate assessing staff.

Expenditure.

The actual expenditure for the 11 months ended 31st March, 1947, amounted to just under $86,000,000 but, as explained in an earlier paragraph, this comprises recurrent expenditure only, most of the non-recurrent charges having been allocated to advances pending the raising of a special loan for the purpose of rehabilitation necessitated by the occupation of the Colony by the Japanese. The larger items, in round figures, were:-

(a) Miscellaneous Services

This includes a sum of rather under $19,000,000 for High Cost of Living and Rehabilitation Allowances for various grades of Government servants.

(b) Stores Department

$25,400,000

10,000,000

Mainly for purchases of stores required for all Departments.

(c) Pensions

6,000,000

This is accounted for principally by large sums paid for arrears relating to the period of enemy occupation.

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