TAXES BY INSTALMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 22 September 1925, Page 6

TAXES BY INSTALMENTS.

In his plea in the Public Works Statement for a Local Government Board, the Prime Minister said that such a body "might introduce several reforms, such as the paying of rates quarterly, a system that would be welcomed by ratepayers with small means, and would have the additional advantage of providing local bodies with tho use of considerable sums of money free of interest." The reform mentioned would be welcomed by both parties, but there is no need to wait for a Local Government Board to introduce it. We understand that now there arc local bodies which receive rates by instalments, but that this involves a departure from the usual system of local body accounting. Receiving rates in the ordinary way means that local bodies have to work on overdrafts for part of the year,and then have an accumulation of rate money in the bank on which they draw no interest. A system of quarterly or half-yearly payments would give them easier finance. Tho whole system of rate collection and payment, and local body account keeping, should be overhauled, which could be done at once by a committee consisting of a couple of experienced local body officials and a couple of accountants. The Government, however, should itself practise what it recommends to local bodies, it receives income and land tax in single payments, a system that is often embarrassing to taxpayers, and, by confining receipts lo certain times i" the year, complicates the Government's finance. Why not introduce a system of payment of taxation by instalments?