Corporation tax take falling

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 4

Corporation tax take falling

Political reporter The top nine corporations paid about 15 per cent of their net profits in tax in 1985-86, and the proportion of all income tax paid by companies had dropped almost 5 per cent since 1980, the Minister of Revenue, Mr de Cleene, said yesterday. The percentage of income tax paid by companies was 14.57 in 1980, but had dropped to 10.04 in the financial year to March 31, 1987. Mr de Cleene was

responding to a question from the member of Parliament for Sydenham, Mr Jim Anderton, who then asked what implications this drop had “on the burden of taxation falling equitably on individual and corporate taxpayers.” Mr de Cleene replied that this was a matter of opinion, but he agreed there had been a considerable drop. Mr Anderton said, in a supplementary question, that 14.92 per cent was

less than the average beneficiary paid, and less than half paid by the average taxpayer. Much of the non-taxed profits came from the sale of shares. Papers dealing with tightening up company tax would soon be considered, said Mr de Cleene. But he warned that if the tax net was tightened too far people would not have the profit to reinvest and would be tempted to invest offshore.