THE INCOME TAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 132, 5 June 1923, Page 4

THE INCOME TAX.

A PROMISED REDUCTION

MAXIMUM OF FIVE «HIIXIN GSt

BACK TO PENNY POSTAGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ' WELLINGTON, this day. A report of a speech delivered b? Sir Joseph Ward in the south containing criticisms regarding taxation was referred to by the Prime Minister last night. "Sir Joseph Ward's statement is misleading and incorrect." said Mr. Massey, "so far as income tax in England is concerned. He says it is 4/6. That is right, but the supertax is 6/) and has never been reduced since it was imposed during the war, so that the total British income tax now is 10/8, with the exception of a reduction which has been recently indicated by the Prime Minister (Mr. Stanley Baldwin), though, if my memory serves mc correctly, there is 1/ in the pound corporation tax in addition. Our maximum income tax, it is quite true, is 7/4 in the £at present. I propose to ask Parliament to reduce taxation by two million pounds during next session. We shall be able to do that, and the income tax will come down to approximately 5/ in the £ though I cannot say to a farthing at the moment, nor shall I be able to do so for some weeks to come. As for the increase since the war, Sir Joseph Ward seems to imagine, or tries to make the public believe, that on the day the armistice was signed everything was paid off. As a matter of fact we had practically all the cleaning up to do after that date—£36,ooo,ooo worth of liabilities directly arising out of the war, £9,000,000 for discharged soldiers' housing and settlement, and £23,000,000 for purposes which come under the heading of public works. As for the surplus which was invested in London when Sir Joseph Ward resigned from the National Government, that, along with the £9,000,000 already referred to. was used for soldiers' housing and settlement, and if £17,000,0u had not been available it would have been almost impossible to have gone on with those two purposes, as money for borrowing was not available in London or New Zealand at that time. I am quite satisfied that soldiers' housing and settlement will be a very useful asset in this country in years to come. It is paj'ing nominally 4i per cent, of which one-half per cent goes for administration." "As for penny postage," continued Mr. ilassey, "that has been arranged, and the public will be notified in the Budget of the date upon which it will come into operation. The plain truth is that the finances of New Zealand are in a better position to-day than the finances in any other country in the British Dominions, and if he will allow mc to say so. Sir Joseph Ward should be more careful of his reputation than to make such grossly incorrect statements as some of those for which he has lately been responsible.' .