TAXATION OF CLUBS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27089, 11 July 1953, Page 4

TAXATION OF CLUBS

LEVY CONSIDERED TOO BIG

MR CHALMERS EXPRESSES CONCERN

“The Press” Special Service

WELLINGTON, July 10. Concern at the taxation levied on racing clubs was expressed by the president (Mr H. R. Chalmers) in his address to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Racing Conference at Wellington today. In spite of the decreases in attendances and totalisator turnovers at race meetings throughout the Dominion, clubs had generally been able to maintain stakes at a high level, and to spend some amounts on adding to or improving amenities provided for racegoers, he said. “However, most clubs would, I am sure, spend a great deal more on improvements, mainly in the provision of accommodation for the public, if the incidence of taxation did not affect them as it does,” he said.

“One must realise and admit that, with Government expenditure at the level it now is, taxation must be high, but why racing clubs should be practically the only sporting bodies liable to income tax is a mystery to me. “Racing clubs are not trading concerns, nor, are they profit-making organisations in the true commercial sense. They have no capital. Their object is to provide racing under the best possible conditions, and surplus funds earned are put back into racing, either by increased prize-money, by improvements to grandstands and other buildings on racecourses, or by generally adding to and improving the amenities provided for their patrons. “No member of the executive of either the racing or trotting conference, or of the committee of any of the clubs, receives any financial benefit from his connexion with the sport,” said Mr Chalmers. “In fact, it is a fair thing to say that most, if not all of them, are out of pocket financially, to say nothing of the time they give in the interest of the game. “There are, of course, paid officials, but these officials do not control racing. It is controlled by a ‘large body of men who work earnestly, without thought of reward, and with nothing but the true interests of racing generally. I have laid some stress on that matter, as one of the reasons given for racing clubs being liable for income and social security tax is that the men controlling racing are paid for their services. This is not so,” he concluded.