INQUIRY ON TAX

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 11

INQUIRY ON TAX

Call For Report

The hope that the committee of inquiry on taxation appointed by the Government would present an interim report on the most urgent reforms necessary in the taxation structure was expressed by the president of the Constitutional Society, Sir Matthew Oram, in a statement. Sir Matthew Oram said he agreed with the president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, Mr G. E. Stock, that the Cabinet and the Commissioner of Inland Revenue had the necessary material to go ahead now with a revision of taxation, but as the Government had decided to appoint a committee of independent experts it was natural that all aspects should be studied by the committee.

The requirement in the terms of reference that the committee should keep in mind the need to maintain adequate taxation revenue should not inhibit the committee from making farreaching recommendations. Sir Matthew Oram said. The committee would no doubt have before it the experience in certain other countries where a lowering of taxation rates had had such a stimulating effect on the economy that Government revenue had actually increased. Taxation in New Zealand was severely punitive on initiative and enterprise and should be drastically over-; hauled. Sir Matthew Oram said. The steep rise in the scale of income tax to a maximum of 13s 6d in the £ at £3600 a year was probably the most severe in the world’. The crippling effects of death ) duties on family businesses; ; and farms and of excess re-i tention tax on private com-1 panies, which too were often; family concerns, also called) for prompt revision.