§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are (a) total tax contributions, (b) income tax and social security contributions, (c) expenditure taxes, (d) employers' social security contributions, (e) taxes on corporate income, (f) local government taxes and rates as a percentage of gross national product in Sweden, West Germany, France, Japan, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia for 1978 or the latest available year.
§ Mr. Peter ReesThe latest year for which information on a comparable basis is available is 1976. The percentages of gross national product which the various categories of taxes and social security contributions represent for the countries specified were given in an article in the December 1978 edition of "Economic Trends—International Comparisons of taxes and social security contributions 1970–1976." These figures relate to taxes paid to both central Government and to State and local government. Taxes paid to State and local government as a percentage of gross national product are given in the following table.
TAXES PAID TO STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AS A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT AT FACTOR COST IN 1976 Taxes on income Taxes on expenditure Sweden 13.8 0.6 West Germany 8.2 5.3 France 1.4 1.9 Japan n.a. n.a. United States of America 2.6 8.1 United Kingdom — 4.1 Australia — 6.1 Source: United Nations Yearbook of National Accounts Statistics 1977