HIGH TAXATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 9

HIGH TAXATION.

"DRIVES MONEY AWAY." ASSETS FROM AUSTRAWA. BANK CHAIRMAN'S COMMENTS. "There is no doubt that general high taxation drives money and credit out of a country, but by this I do not imply that New Zealand has, until now,, suffered in such a manner," said Mr. W. Watson, acting-chairman of directors of the- Bank of New Zealand, at the annual meeting to-day, when stating that taxation paid to the Government during the year amounted to £54,109 more than in the previous year, and that the total increase in rates and taxes on the whole of the bank's business'was £86,837. "On the contrary," said Mr. Watson, "It is well known that large sums have been transferred from Australia and invested here. The causes of these remittances were undoubtedly the more stable conditions which obtain here, fears of higher taxataion, and probably exchange. It has been held by eminent authority in London, that money and credit cannot ordinarily be removed from a country, but individuals can, and have been able to, transfer their assets from' Australia to other countries, by various methods, and to enrich the places of receipt by making investments there. It is also clear that subtraction by any State of the people's wealth, either by inordinate taxation, or by high death and gift duties, to pay for expenditure overseas, which cannot be met hy excess of exports over imports, must impoverish that State to the detriment of all within it.

"Unfair" Taxation of Banks. "Income tax was increased last year by 10 per cent, involving the bank in an. additional impost of £17,865. As some-of you know, banks in New Zealand are taxed not on what they actually earn in the Dominion,- but on what, under an arbitrary and now ■ unfair system, they are assumed to have earned; the result being that, as compared with what we would-have to.pay if taxed as a joint stock company, we were .mulcted; last year to the extent of no less than an-additional:, £58,841..

"During the year £594,263 was paid by the bank to the Government of New Zealand by way of dividends and taxation, as follows:—Dividends, £245,312; income tax, £196,524; land tax, £18,863; note tax, £133,564. Total, £594,263."