IMPOSTS ON LAND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 537, 18 June 1909, Page 7

IMPOSTS ON LAND.

UNIONIST COMPLAINT.

IT IS A LUXURY TO OWN THE 60IL.

LORD ONSLOW WILL SELL. (nr TELEOBAPH—rKES3 ASSOCIATION—COPitttOHT.) London, Juno 16. . The Earl of Onslow '(formerly Unionist President of the Board of Agriculture and Governor of Now Zealand) says that tho Bui get proposals will practically wipe out tho agricultural income from "his estates, which are estimated at 13,600 acres. Land, says his Lordship, is now'a luxury, •not an investment. Ho intends to sell a krgo portion of his estate and dismiss his permanent staff..

Lord Onslow suggests that tho electors 'should press the Government to amend tho . Finance., 831, and not trust'to the Lords rejecting it. LANDOWNER TO PAY ONE-FIFTH OF UNEARNED INCREMENT. AGRICULTURAL LAND DECREMENT IS - .£500,000,000. Writing m a Loudon paper, "11. W.W." thus explains the working of Mr. Lloyd-George's tat Of 20 per cent', on tho unearned increment oi land:— .

The Budget will levy a tax of 20 per oent., or One-fifth, on tho unearned increment of laud. All land will bo valued at the present time, and if hereafter tho valuo rises the increase wilt be Called "unearned increment," and one-fifth o. it will be taken by the tax-gatherer. I ThO tax will bo levied when the land is 6old or when it passes on the death of the possessor to his heir. Companies and charities will ba required to pay the tax at stated intervals, but will bo allowed to spread tho payment over a numier of years in annual instalments. An example-may be given. If a man-buys land to-day at -£'500 and sells it two years hence at £600, without his having expended anything upon it, Jlloo—the difference between ■£500 and <£600—will be regarded as the "unearned increment," and he will be called upon to pay J220 of, this to the tax-gatherer*- ' Land,'like every other commodity, rises and falls in price: The price may go up or may go down. If it goes down, the purchaser loses and tho State pays him no part of the-loss. If it goes up/ tho State takes one-fifth of the rise. . In the case of all property thjro may bo an 'unearned" .increment or decrement. Thus Union Pacific shares were bought in Novomber 1006, tor-193. They sold in October, 1907, for only 108. so that there was an "unearned doorement" of 85. But if thev had then been bought, and sold yesterday, when tho prico Was :lyl, there .would liavo hoeu'an "unearned iiK cremcnt" of 83. . ,

• Lantj is thus to bo specially taxed and treated differently from stocks and shares ljj ,the new Budget, though in recent vears the valuo 'of agricultural land lias fallen very heavily. Tho amount of the fall in the last thirty years has been about .£500,000,000, as is shown by tho income-tax returns.

"UNDEVELOPED LAND." _The tax of id. in the ,£ on the capital value of undeveloped land and ungotten minerals is one of, the most-, strongly-opposed of the Budrat land taxes. ' l f ,? Uo S; in ? P° int was put to tho Chancel-lor-of the Exchequer (Mr. Lloyd-George), by a reporter. Will the now tax of a halfpenny in the pound on the capital value of undovolop3d land apply to places of public recreation—racecourses, cricket grounds, football grounds, golf units, tennis courts, and playgrounds? apply," said Mr. Lloyd-George, "to all undevolopwl land which has a special buildland is thrown open' to the public on reasonable conditions. ! A good many gentlemen, with private parks near a town, throw open thoso parks to the peoplo wider fair restrictions for tho protection of their amenities. I have made a special exemption in cases of that kind. ' | -'/As to racecourses, a clear test will be app J-V- . tlio course is private property, with a distinct building,value, and. if tne proprietors make money out of the land, they will be liableto_ pay. . Epsom Downs, being always Omn to the public, would, I take it, escape. Many of tho racecourses in open country to which you refer have, I should think, no special valuo as building sites. , "Where they, havo, then, of course, they are liable.to the_tax. But the'land must be worth more than-,C50 an acre to begin' with. That rules out all poor land without a special building value. ! . The conditions I have defined will apply equally to oncket grounds and football grounds and golf links; They will not apply to publio playgrounds, nor even to private playing grounds, when th« proprietors give reasonable' f, coess to '»» public for; their onjoyt ?'!?■ -f-j/MS" sjßßMted' a • further question, £ord a-- ind • Oval, the ' Chelsea football nL n n f n< }' all lo , ther fctball grounds in tho middle of, large, towns-these have, a distinct te" s Tnhl I ®v t ''ey are worth more than. .£SO an acre, and they are not open to the public for enjoyment except when the publio | fax? r SlOU ' Are thc s" liable to the

«plicd'. "It depends en. f uT« they come under tho head of public amenities, ami that point will be detliUmi'T? 1 ™'J r 'he Commissioners of Inland Revenue* Thore are certain odcd Spaces which it. would not be in 'the nublic interest to bmid upon, nnd these will be etempted.,. But o toV'm. ,»bont any specific Instance would be like asking a judge to pi to his views on a case before it liad been arguld."