m
#0
BSni
ÎWl
XVlll
-
%-and
£1 Ils. 6c?. to the municipality ; thus paying 3*4 per cent, of his assessed
income. A workman with £2 a week would pay £3 17s. 6c?., viz., £l 11s. to
the State and £2 6s. 6c?. to the municipality, or 3*7 per cent, of his assessed
income.
Incomes under £45 a year are exempt from State taxation but may be
taxed for local purposes at the discretion of the municipality. The Communal
Taxation Act fixes below this minimum three income groups, to each of which
a base rate of taxation is assigned. The scale is as follows :—Incomes up to
£21, two-fifths per cent, of income up to a maximum of Is. 'l\d. ; incomes from
£21 to £33, 2s. 4\d. ; incomes from £33 to £45 inclusive, 4s. In theory the
full local additional percentage may be levied upon these base rates, but in
practice the municipalities either exempt these three grades of income altogether
or levy a lower percentage upon them.
In many towns a further percentage of the -State Income Tax is levied by
the religious communes (parishes), or the municipalities on their behalf, as a
Church Tax for the upkeep of churches, support of clergy, &c. Each person
liable to State Income Tax is taxed for this purpose by the religious community
to which he legally belongs, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic or Jewish,
and the liability can only be escaped by formal withdrawal from the Church.
The Church Tax varies with local needs, and in some of the towns investigated
it is as high as 50 or 60 per cent, of the State Income-Tax. In Berlin it is only
13^ per cent, and falls only on persons who pay on incomes exceeding £75.
In most of the other states of the German Empire the methods of local
taxation are approximately the same as those of Prussia ; but some of the
Saxon and South German towns retain for local revenue purposes the “ octroi ”
system, i.e. taxes imposed on a number of articles, chiefly food and beverages,
brought within the municipal boundaries for consumption there. Such duties,
which are usually very low in amount, are levied on numerous commodities at
Dresden, Munich. Nuremberg, Aschaffenburg, and Mülhausen, and at Mannheim
only on wine and beer (though in this last case there is also a consumption tax
levied by the State of Baden on meat).
(ii.)—Food and Food Pkices.
Budgets of Working-class Families.
For the purposes of this Enquiry a large number of forms asking for
particulars as to the weekly income and the expenditure on rent and food
for one week by a workman and his wife and children living at home, were
distributed by means of trade unions and other workmen’s societies in the
various German towns covered in this investigation, and after a certain number
of returns had been rejected on account of the inadequacy of the information
given, or for other reasons, 5,046 were left available for statistical purposes.
The following Table shows the geographical and industrial grouping of the
Budgets so obtained :—
Geographical Group.
Berlin
Central Germany
Rhineland-Westphalia
(a) Textile Towns .
(&) Hardware Towns
South-west Germany
Saxony
Silesia
Baltic Ports
North Sea Ports ...
Total
Number of
Budgets.
413
295
518
798
687
666
378
700
591
5,046
Industry.
Metals and Engineering
Building ...
Textiles and Clothing ...
Woodwork and Furnishing
Printing and Paper
Transport and Commerce
Food, Drink and Tobacco
Mining and Smelting ...
Leather
Glass, Pottery, Stone and Bricks
Chemicals, Gas, &c.
Factory Workers
Workmen undefined
Other
Total
Number of
Budgets.
1,142
1,015
430
363
354
293
231
192
151
86
31
188
305
265
5,046
