CANADA: Up, Up, Up

With their country still nominally neutral, their war effort still far from hitting its full, expensive stride, U.S. citizens last week got a close-up view of what war taxation meant in dollars & cents, a possible preview of U.S. taxation in the uncertain years to come. In Ottawa, Canadian Finance Minister J. L. Ilsley stood up in Parliament to introduce the Dominion’s biggest budget ever ($1,760,000,000), to suggest the biggest tax bill ($1,450,000,000) Canadians have ever paid.

Going up, up, up, Canadian taxes are still well below the skyscraper level of Britain’s, stand at the moment about halfway between the proposed U.S. taxes for the coming year and the sub-confiscatory British levies.

Comparative figures : for a married man with an income of $2,000: U.S., no tax; Canada, $175 (last year’s tax $75); Britain, $327. For a married man with a $5,000 income: U.S., $506; Canada, $1,000; Britain, $1,577.