COMMERCE AND TAXATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 117, 19 May 1924, Page 8

COMMERCE AND TAXATION.

EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMISSION. RESOLUTIONS OF CONFERENCE. (By Telegraph.—Preee Assoelatloo.) WELLINGTON, Sunday. Evidence on behalf of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce was presented to the Taxation Commission yesterday by Mr. H. D. Bennett in the form of resolutions passed at the annual conference of the associated chambers last year. The resolutions were as follow:— (1) The freedom from taxation and rating enjoyed by institutions controlled by the State and local bodies, thus con- , ferring \advantagcs over similar trading j concerns in the hands of private citiizens, is improper, and it is the opinion of this conference that all business should be placed on an equality of footing, and that it should be obligatory that the annual balance-sheet relating to each such enterprise be published, and (hat all land owned by local bodies and leased for revenue to persons, firms or companies should be subject to land tax in the same manner as private owners. (2) That income tax equivalent, approximately to the average rate paid by companies, should bo paid by all public bodies and Oovernment trading |and publicly owned utility undertakings, land the tax arrived at by assessing income should be based on a fixed percentage of the total amount of capital employed. (.'?) That the Government be urged to relieve the present unfairly imposed burden upon the general tax-payer by (a) altering the incidence of income tax in accordance with the recommendations of the 1922 taxation committee, (b) by the inclusion of dividends in shareholders' individual assessments, instead of a levy upon the total income of registered companies, (c) by providing that the taxation upon income derived from debenture securities be the same as that from mortgages. (4) That this conference is of opinion that it is inequitable that the graduated principle intended to discourage aggregation of country lands should be applied to city properties employed in the production of assessable income.