24

HOW TO PAY FOR THE WAR

diminishing the net Government demands on thepublic by this amount, since it cannot easily beallocated to the personal savings of any group. Inaddition fully £300 million are likely to accumulatethrough Building Societies , Life Offices, Super-annuation Funds, the undistributed profits of com-panies (which alone were estimated at £300 miUionpre-war) and other institutional channels, even ifindividuals make no voluntary savings in additionto the other demands made on them. If this sumis allocated somewhat arbitrarily (for exact infor-mation is lacking) between the different incomegroups, we are left with the following:

Income group Below £250

£250-£500

Above £500

Total

£

£

£

£

million

million

million

million

War incomes

less pre-war

taxes

2,945

690

1,220

4,855

Minimum vol-

untary savings

50

75

175

300

2,895

615

1,045

4,555

out of which £950 million has still to be foundfor the Government. Even allowing for a widemargin of error in this calculation, it shows thatif everyone with more than £500 a year had thewhole of his income in excess of that sum takenfrom him in taxes, the yield would not be nearlyenough, 1 being £625 million or only two-thirds ofthe Government's requirements.

1 There are about 840,000 heads of households with more than£500 a year and their aggregate war incomes, after deducting pre-wartaxes and minimum saving, is put above at £1,045 million, which leaves£625 million after deducting £500 per head.