Property tax ‘outdated’

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 6

Property tax ‘outdated’

PA Wellington The Opposition warned in Parliament yesterday that the Government would cause damage by repealing the Labour Government's property speculation tax. The Prime Minister, (Mr Muldoon) announced in the Budget that the Government 1 planned to abolish the tax. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling), asserted yesterday that since then prop-i erty speculators had begun | to reappear. Speaking during the com-l'

mittee stages of the Property Speculation Tax Repeal Bill, he said that the 1973 Labour legislation, brought in to stabilise the housing market, had had an effect. This was after a period in which the National Government had “run the building industry down,” he said. The industry was again ' being run down by the i National Government, and iMr Rowling predicted “a I very- dangerous period of destabilisation” once the econlomy began to recover.

He said builders would not be able to cope with the demand.

The Minister of Inland Revenue, (Mr Templeton), said the property tax legislation was out of date and the Government wished to remove such unnecessary controls from the Statute Book.

Those who profited from buying property would still have to pay income tax and he believed that was sufficient.