The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1935. HOPES OF TAX RELIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 251, 23 October 1935, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1935. HOPES OF TAX RELIEF.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we own do.

On the principle that taxation relief is always acceptable, tlie public would welcome an announcement even this late in the year that the Government had decided to make some reductions. There are strong reasons why the Budget figures should he reviewed. Export values, particularly for dairy produce, have made a rapid advance since the Government framed its Estimates for the year, and trade generally has continued to. improve. A time of business and trade expansion is also a time of rising State revenue; the yield from taxation and the ■earnings of the railways, the Post Office and the other Departments increases, and the payments due to the Government to cover interest on loans are more promptly and more fully met. The Budget is gradually relieved of that growing liability for unpaid interest which is such a drag on the country's finances in difficult years, and directly and indirectly economic recovery brings benefit to the Treasury in every channel of revemxe. In the Budget Mr. Coates estimated for increases of nearly £1,400,000, and. after deducting an estimated decrease of £810,700 in the yield of death duties and other small decreases, arrived at a net expansion in revenue of £-540,400.

A comparison with last year suggests that the Government has -under-estimated the probable increase from' Customs. With the import trade rapidly improving, and likely to continue active, it is reasonable to expect that the rate of progress will be at least as great in the present year. Even allowing-; for the fact, that the reductions in the tariff take more-from the Budget this year, it seems likely that Customs revenue 'will produce a considerable surplus. Sale? taxation, which fastens still more closely on business turnover, should also improve on last year's yield. These probabilities encourage hopes of Reductions which would give trade a further stimulus. The primage duty is overdue for removal, and a downward revision of the sales tax should be a. safe venture. And among special claimants for relief who are entitled to immediate consideration ' are the gold mining companies. The duty of 12/6 an ounce on gold has been a failure from every angle. It has been producing less revenue each year since it was imposed, has shackled gold mining in a time when it should be expanding pn an ever-widening scale, and has nullified thV, beneficial effects which were intended to flow from the grants made by the Unemployment; Board to assist the gold industry. This jfcax stands condemned by its results, and it is time the Government removed it in its present form. Gold mining should be taxed on its profits like other industries. As for the income tax, the relief that could' be given this year is probably small compared with the heed, but the effect of any reduction would be cheering. Income taxation will have to be completely revised before it can be reduced ti>' a satisfactory basis, and the task of revision is one that, should be undertaken as soon as possible by the new Government.