‘Taxation System Man’s Most Complex Creation’

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29832, 26 May 1962, Page 12

‘Taxation System Man’s Most Complex Creation’

(N.Z Press Association)

NELSON, May 25. New Zealand’s income tax system had produced a special group of tax legislation “sleuths” who spent their time searching for loop-holes in the law and, having found them, sold their findings to whoever was prepared to pay them, said Mr J. G. Pryde, a research officer for Federated Farmers, in Nelson today.

Addressing the annual conference of Nelson Federated Farmers, he urged a complete stocktaking of the taxation system, which he described as “one of the most involved man has ever created.”

Mr Pryde said many people were spending hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of man-hours trying to follow the intricacies of the' legislation, together with its annual amendments. In the national interest their time would be better spent applying themselves to increasing the efficiency of their enterprises. “I believe it is wrong that farmers and businessmen, for instance, should be penalised financially if they do not consult specialists in taxation loopholes. Yet there are numerous instances of such people having paid a greater share of taxation than those who have had the advantage of taxation know-how.” said Mr Pryde. “If at times you are bewildered by the complexities of the present system you may be pardoned. Greater minds than yours or mine

are also confused. Even the staff of the Inland Revenue Department have an enormous task administering the system,” he said. Mr Pryde said the large emphasis in New Zealand on direct taxation had given inadequate incentive both to earn and to save. Spending had beep unrestrained. In fact savers had been penalised through inflation. To overcome this wrong emphasis in future, taxes might have to be levied only when people spent their incomes. Mr Pryde asked whether the time had come for the ‘burial" of land tax. • He said land tax was imposed on property holders, and one of its main origins was to break up large estates. This justification no longer applied. In fact, the reverse might now be true. There was need, as the Minister of Agriculture had said recently, for making existing farms larger in some cases. Land tax involved considerable. administration and, unlike other taxes, could not be passed on in higher prices because it was levied mainly on those who had to compete in world markets.