COMPANY TAXATION CRITICISED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22466, 29 July 1938, Page 10

COMPANY TAXATION CRITICISED

"Heavy Burden" On Industry EFFECT ON EMPLOYMENT DISCUSSED [TUB PRESS Special Service.J DUNEDIN, July 28. Criticism of the large amount of taxation which he allege 4 industrial concerns in New Zealand had to pay was made by Mr J. S. Skinner in his presidential address to the annual meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce. "Parliament has seen fit to bring into operation an Industrial Efficiency Act," Mr Skinner said. "The natural assumption from this is that business would receive encouragement from the hands of a benign Government. But what do we find? "The successful company pays in income tax alone 7s 6d in the pound. Land and other taxes will often bring this amount up to 10s in the pound, and in some cases appreciably more. Does the man in the street realise that these companies, which have been responsible for the industrial development of this Dominion, employ, many thousands of New Zealand men and women at perhaps the highest wage in the world for the equivalent work (and yet in certain quarters are often referred to as 'those vested interests'). Does he realise that these companies work for the first* six months of every year for the State alone? "Do the people generally realise," Mr Skinner asked, "that if it were not for this heavy burden of taxation the production of these companies, whether in goods or services, could be made available at considerably less money and so lessen the cost of living? Cheaper costs mean greater demand, which in turn means increased production and—this is a factor of paramount importance to-day—more employment of labour."