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INCREASING AUSTRIAN RACE TAXES. The newest Austrian tax, by which the government hopes to increase its annual income by something like two and a half million crowns 00,000, is a new and additional levy on the betting at the various Austrian race tracks. The new tax provides that in addition to the percentage of all totalistatcur pari mutuel wagers already taken by the government, a special "win tax" shall be imposed on all those who pick horses that pay 30 crowns or more for 10 wagered. Thus if the pari-mutuel pays 31 for 10, the government will take an extra 10 hellers from the winner; this percentage of tax rises until the government will collect 2 j crowns in such cases as the pari-mutuel pays 250 for 10, an occurrence by no means infrequent when the favorite horse is beaten by an outsider. . , From the figures of the betting at the racetracks during the past season, and the prices which the hugely patronized pari-mutuel machines have paid the government estimates that it can increase its income by a round million crowns. Another million and a half it expects to realize from a similar special tax on bets made with the lKjokmakers in the race track rings. The new tax will appreciably enhance an already profitable business for the government, for under the old system it collects 20 per cent, of all money wagered before the scale which the pari-mutuel is to pay is reck- -neil mi. . . I . I , j I . i . 1 j I I . x a
