Valuations Of Farm Lands For Death Duties Attacked

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28822, 17 February 1959, Page 12

Valuations Of Farm Lands For Death Duties Attacked

(New Zealand Press Association}

Masterton, February is. “This triple taxation squeeze—death duties, gift duties, and inflation of valuations—constitutes a State monopoly by -which the Budget hopes to have most farm capital and savings in the hands of a Government which is under no obligation to repay.” said Mr L. T. Daniell, addressing the Mauriceville branch of Federated Farmers tonight. "When the Government was wishful to buy land at 1942 values, it insisted on the producing value of land as the most important factor in valuing, and so bought land cheaply. But today, with high prices gone with the wind, and high costs still with us. Government valuers are taking the temporary speculative vtilues of the last four years as their guide in estimating values at death. “Inflated Baals” ; "Today, in dealing with a deceased estate, the Valuation Department is assessing all possible assets oh an exaggerated and inflated basis, while the Stamp Duties Division of the Inland Revenue Department gets its swollen cut.

“Perhaps the most important alteration to the. Valuation Act is a provision for county valuations every five years instead of ten. Farmers thought it a bit of empire building in a small Government department, but someone angrily retorted that It was to give farmers the benefit of rises and falls in produce markets. “Yet already this five-year-plan has collapsed. Annual returns from dairy products have fallen many many millions over the last two years, and all the Dairy Board savings are gone, yet the

Valuation Department, adopting the ostrich defence, is pushing values up instead of down on an enormous scale,” said Mr Daniell. "Returns from wool have fallen over the last two seasons by many millions, yet this department is increasing the valuations Of sheep farms by 30 per cent to’ 100 per cent. All that farmers and counties require is a valuation every ten years to keep fates on an even keel. .Under the latest system, are we not paying to maintain an unnecessary army of valuers?

“Our objection is to the smart change of feet made by the Government for its own purposes—the change rom productive value to so-called comparable values. It has no intention of honestly purchasing much farm land, as witness the tiny sum set aside in the present year for land purchase. It intends to confiscate it. And is the Valuation Department to become a willing tool?"