The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1936. TAXES ON THE FAMILY MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 185, 6 August 1936, Page 6

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

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1936. TAXES ON THE FAMILY MAN.

For the came that lack? <tssi?.iance, For the uvony that needs For the future in ■the distance, And the good that we can do.

An immediate effect of the new scale of income taxation is a sharp' increase in the burden on people of moderate incomes. For instance, the family man with two children and an income of £500 a year will now be required to pay a tax of £12 9/8 (an increase oz nearly £5), in addition to £16 11/ unemployment tax and the unemployment levy of £1 a year, a total of £30 0/8 in direct taxation. There may be some reduction of this sum in particular cases where exemptions are claimable for life insurance premiums and superannuation payments, but, subject to this qualification, his contribution to the State will be the equivalent of three weeks' salary a year. For him this is the first visible effect of the Budget. The other and indirect effects, also immediate in operation, will be gieatei. Customs and sales taxation, which bear heavily on the family man, through the additional cost of everything he has to buy, will amount this year to at least £7 12/6, on the average, for every man, woman and child in the Dominion; that is, to £30 10/ for a family of four. If the family owns a motor car there will be a further addition, avei aging £12 10/ for each motor vehicle in the Dominion. Land tax is another item which may be £2 on the ordinary freehold section. A further £2 a head, or £8 for our family of four, is taken in stamp and death duties. And to complete the list there is an addition of 10/ per head to be made for the excise duty on spirituous liquors and the tax on picture entertainments. Bringing, together all items, direct and indirect, the total reaches £85 on an income of £500. Where there aie no children indirect taxation may be somewhat less, according to the conditions, accommodation and the standard of life, but the income tax of the £500 a year married man without children will be nearly £10 higher.

In the lower ranges of incomes direct taxation diminishes in ratio to the income, but the largest item of indirect taxation, that on the necessaries of life, remains and increases with the size of the family. It is one of the weaknesses of our tax system that it makes a large addition to the cost of living of people of small means, and this in a form which is inescapable. The present Budget, instead of relieving this burden, has further increased it. The Government, in its zeal to increase expenditure in various directions, has overlooked\the immediate and urgent need ..of easing the of taxes. Even those whom it is most desired to help, the pension classes, will find the increased grants quickly absorbed by the rise in the cost of living. The combined effects of the Budget and the Government's measures of a cost-raising character now being taken will bear onerously on all people of limited means.