The amount paid per person by the English railway companies, whose lines comprise 11,538 miles, a gross revenue of £52,904,920, and the total aggregate expenses of which amount to £27,731,876, would probably be too high an average for the United Kingdom. Assuming, however, the difference in the amount per person paid in England as compared with the other countries to be an average of only £10, and that the cost of wages in this country could be reduced to that extent, there would be a saving of about £3,500,000 per annum.[78]
So much for the grounds put forward to justify a reduction of rates. Far from proving that working expenses are less on lines in this country, and that this forms grounds for reducing the rates, these figures clearly prove the opposite to be the case.
Rates and Taxes on Railways in England
and on the Continent.
A large item in the expenses of railway companies in this country is the amount paid for rates and taxes other than the Government duty. The matter is too important to be passed over in general terms. In the United Kingdom the amount paid by all the railway companies for rates and taxes in the year 1884 was no less than £1,937,691. This is exclusive of Government duty to the extent of £398,577 and of income tax on the net receipts amounting to about £800,000. Including these items the total sum paid for rates and taxes for the year was £3,136,268. In England and Wales alone the amount paid for that year was for
| £ | |
| Rates and Taxes | 1,664,660 |
| Government Duty | 369,677 |
| Income Tax (about) | 700,000 |
| £2,734,337 | |
| ============= |
From the year 1871 inclusive to the end of 1884, the following sums were paid in the United Kingdom for
| £ | |
| Rates and Taxes | 19,995,570 |
| Government Duty | 9,313,678 |
| Income Tax (about) | 7,600,000 |
| £36,909,248 | |
| ============= |
No such payments as these are made to the Governments or parishes by the railway companies in Belgium or Holland, or in respect of the State lines, in Germany. In Belgium, for instance, the railway companies pay no rates and taxes of any kind except small sums to towns for local rates (which amounted in the aggregate to only £1,468 for the year 1884), and a license duty or income tax to the State of 2 per cent. on the annual profits amounting for the same year to £4,406, a total of £5,874 for the year.
In Germany the whole amount paid by the railways for rates and taxes in the same year was £261,221, together with a State tax of £26,209, paid under the head of “tax on profits,” by the independent and semi-independent companies only, and not by the State railways. This made a total for the year of £287,430.
The railway companies in Holland do not pay any rates and taxes, except a license duty to the State of 2 per cent. on the dividends paid to the shareholders. Indeed, Article No. 8 of the Convention of the 24th and 25th May, 1876, for the working of the State railways by the Dutch Company, stipulates that the railways shall be exempt during the period of the Concession, from all Government taxation or payments to towns or parishes.