TAXATION BURDEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 217, 13 September 1944, Page 4

TAXATION BURDEN

INCIDENCE QUESTION

GOVERNMENT'S PROBLEMS (By Telesraph.—Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, this day.

A request for an overhaul of the incidence of taxation was justified, as flaws did arise inside the legal structure, said the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, when replying to the second reading debate on Ihe Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill in the House of Representatives last evening. He added that proposals were under way to meet some of the various suggestions put forward and legislation would come down in the land and Income Tax Amendment Bill in the ordinary way.

. The Minister expressed dissent from the suggestion by Opposition speakers that there should be relief from taxation in order to provide for developments after the war. That, in effect, said the Minister, meant that the people who were in New Zealand could get money for their private advantage while others who were away fighting could not enjoy the same facility. He knew there was the production aspect, and it was the Government's duty to keep production at its maximum, though not by giving benefits which could not be shared by the fighting men. Double Taxation Danger It would be a grave mistake to alter the incidence of taxation so as to throw on the individual the taxation now paid by companies, which amounted to 60 per cent of the taxatio* receipts. If the Government did decide on a change it might adopt something like the Australian system of a fiat tax of 6/ in the £ on companies' income, and then a tax on dividends paid on the full rate payable by the individual, but if that procedure was followed he knew that within five minutes the Opposition would be complaining of double taxation.

The Minister said there had been a contention that the sales tax should be taken off houses. There was something to be said for that, but such a proposal would not construct one more room to a house.

Mr. W. S. Goosman (Nat., Wai kato): It would cheapen them.

Mr. Nash retorted that the only limit to the construction of houses in the Dominion was the available labour, plus materials. The cost was not a factor at the present time.