ABSTRACT
The demand for a Capital Levy is supported by three main arguments, of which the first is the supposed impossibility of raising by taxation the four hundred million or so a year which are required to pay the interest on the War Debt. The second and more serious argument is that as young men have been compelled to sacrifice their lives in the war, stay-at-home people shall be compelled to sacrifice part of their property. The third argument for a Capital Levy is the one which appears to have secured most support for the proposed confiscation. It asserts that the propertied classes "have made money out of the war" and consequently that they ought to bear the money cost of it. The Income Tax had been raised from the 1914–1915 rate of 1s. 3d. to 3s. for 1915–1916 and 5s. for 1917–1918, with proportionate additions to the Super Tax.
