Land tax
Sir,—Anybody who thinks we do not have a capital tax on wealth should hear about land tax. You could be a multi-millionaire with share and mortgage investments and pay no capital tax; but own over $175,000 of commercial or industrial and residential land and you pay 2 per cent per year of the capital value. Farmers and Maoris, of course, are exempt. If you own, say, $350,000 of land but have a mortgage of $300,000 and only $50,000 equity, you still pay $7OOO a year in land tax, a staggering 14 per cent of your equity, while the mortgagee, with a greater equity, pays nothing. The land may be earning nothing. You can imagine what inflated land values do to some people. This tax was revived by that self-proclaimed egalitarian, Sir Robert Muldoon, but that will not excuse any Government continuing it. It is so manifestly unfair you would think even a politican would shrink from it. — Yours, etc., G. STEVEN. Clarkville, January 7, 1986.
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Press, 9 January 1986, Page 14
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167Land tax Press, 9 January 1986, Page 14
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