Tax ‘best in circumstances’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33874, 20 June 1975, Page 14

Tax ‘best in circumstances’

(N.Z. Press Association) ! I WELLINGTON, June 19. The tax rates this] year were concerned with full employment and the survival of Netv Zealand,, said the Minister of Finance (Mr , Tizard) in Parliament , today. Speaking during the second reading debate on the Land ; and Income Tax (Annual); ■ Bill which gives effect to i changes in the tax structure i announced in this year’s Bud-! I get, Mr Tizard said New Zea- ' [land had achieved a stability! iunparalled in the Western, .world during a time when' every country in the world j had managed to get itself in . the second-worst depression! . since the 19305. He asked if New Zea-: ; landers wanted the assurance of unemployment and misery ' and “Muldoonism." or the best deal they could get with i the greatest level of activity, that the country was capable; I of in the circumstances. The new tax rates were the) best the Government could: : give the country in the dr-! cumstances. BORROWING The Opposition had criticised the Government for its deficit before borrowing and at the same time had criticised it for cutting expenditure. The Opposition was led by a man who had the mentality ’ of a cost accountant and who knew the price of everything : and the value of nothing: Mr', Muldoon could not build himself a sandcastle if someone.' 1 else put the sand in front of : him. Mr Tizard said. I The Opposition had contra-, ceptive minds which indulged!

in verbal intercourse without the slightest risk of giving ibirth to an idea, he said. Mr P. I. Wilkinson (Nat., Rodney) said Mr Tizard was obviously rattled, and had : made “extraordinary comments. unbecoming and unfit for a Minister of Finance.” The National Party would ,i reintroduce tax deductions for income-related expenses when it was returned to Government. leaving the present S5O as an automatic mini- ! mum. [' HIGHEST LISTED In 1973, the latest year for .; which international figures .; were available. New ZealandJers paid 5827 in tax per head, (compared with 5724 in Britain. 5644 in West Germanv. I 5549 in Australia, and 5246 in Japan. The Government had i shown an absolute determination to tax neople ruthlessly, said,Mr Wilkinson. Mr J. B. Munro (Lab.. Invercarailh said the bill nave a tnfal tax reduction of S9om and had increased rebates. Wages had been well ahead inf nrices and there was no ‘ doubt that because of the i labour Government people ; knew thev had money in their pockets, he said.

The average taxpayer under the Government’s pbli-l cies would be $3OO a year better off, said Mr M. R.l Smith (Lab., Whangarei). No country in the world with a self-assessed tax system levied as low a tax rate as did New Zealand. This had prompted New Zealand to be called a rich man’s paradise. The bill sought to

remedy this situation in part, i said Mr Smith. Mr L. R. Adams-Schneider I (Nat,, Waikato) said that the moderate tax deductions in the bill were too little, too late. The increase in the personal rebate from 5125 to 5145 would be used up by the increased petrol tax if a person drove 2857 miles.