INCOME TAX INCREASE

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22796, 23 August 1939, Page 10

INCOME TAX INCREASE

“Middle Glass Will Bear Burden” MR KYLE’S CONTENTION »From Our Parliamentary Reporter.! WELLINGTON, August 22. The additions made to the rate of income tax would be mainly borne by the middle incomes section of the community, said Mr H. S. ~. Kyle (Opposition, Riccarton) during the Budget debate in the House of Representatives to-day. It would mainly affect those with incomes below £SOO, he said. The Budget appeared to be a little apologetic about the increase in the income tax, said Mr Kyle, and rightly so, because the burden would be borne by the middle class incomes. There were very few large incomes in New Zealand, which obtained most of its revenue from income tax from those earning below £SOO. Taxation under the present Government had already risen from £l6 5s 6d a head to £25 11s 9d, or nearly £lO. “The description of expenditure on unemployment in the Budg* t is nothing more than a political ramp,” said Mr Kyle. "It is shown that.an amount of £2,900,000 is set aside for unemployment relief, though in another part it is claimed that has been eliminated. However, there is £23,000,000 for public works, and a great deal of that will go on what amounts to relief camps.” Mr Kyle criticised the petrol tax, and quoted from the speeches of Labour members who opposed the former petrol tax. The beer tax, he said, had roused so much resentment that there was a strike against it. “I don’t believe the beer strike of which we read is a strike against the hotelkeepers.” he said, “It is really a strike against the Government.” Nobody knew how much was being spent on State houses, said Mr Kyle, who challenged the Government to tell the public how much the houses were costing. After 30 years, he said, a tenant of a State house would have paid for it. Would the member for Grey Lynn (Mr J. A. Lee) take the part of the tenant if he then refused to pay any more By creating a monopoly the Government had made it very difficult to determine what State houses were costing, though £10,000,000 was being spent on them.