Call for taxes on profits

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 27

Call for taxes on profits

PA Wellington The executive director of the Employers’ Federation, Mr J. W. Rowe, has suggested that penalty payments on wages be abolished and taxes on corporate profits reduced to improve employment opportunities. He made the dual suggestion in an address to the 200 delegates attending the federation’s biennial conference in Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre. “The payment of all hours at the same rate could give a major boost to employment without pushing up unit labour costs,” Mr Rowe said. Other features from the first day of the conference included; • A stern warning by the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, that the Government would not tolerate employers succumbing to union pressure by negotiating wages during the freeze. • The general manager of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, Ltd, Mr S. J. Midgley, claiming voluntary unionism legislation was not working as the Government intended it to. • Wellington police increasing security round the conference venue in the wake of the Trades Hall bombing. Mr Rowe said that the taxation of profits which could be retained in a business — and used for financing its survival dr expansion — was very questionable on economic grounds at present. “It is not at all obvious that business will be able to generate enough employment to satisfy the community unless the climate for business is approved,” he said. “The most obvious way of achieving this across the board would be to reduce or eliminate company tax.”