THE NEW TAXES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2553, 30 August 1915, Page 4

THE NEW TAXES

- Criticism of the new taxes and charges outlined in the Budget has been, so far as we can; gather from our contemporaries, chiefly _ confined to the smaller issues. The increased ■duty on kerosene is very widely condemned', and tho extra tax on cheques is regarded as likely to defeat its own purpose. No doubt the ordinary citizen who uses a chequebook can very easily, without'serious inconvenience, cut down the number of cheques ho issues annually, and thus avoid any extra contribution to the revenue; and an allround economy of the same kind amongst business people will assist to nullify the effort made to raise revenue by tho addition of a penny stamp to'all cheques. There is just the possibility,'-however, that by leading to a free.r use of bftnk rates -the cheque tax may have the effect of swelling the revenue from the tax on that form of currency. The general feeling appears to be that not only is the farmer the man Nvho is to lie most heavily hit by the new taxes, and charges, but he is to bo hit in all directions. He will be the chief sufferer by the increased railway charges, as well as by the new Wo mentioned on Friday last that in' our opinion the small farmer, and to a-large extent the farmer of "moderate means, need have' no uneasiness concerning the effects of the proposed new income tax. That view is. strengthened by a farther perusal of the details of the Budgetproposal. The bigger inan, s however, will be' heavily hit. ' The Christchuroh "Press" makes a sound point concerning the heavy increase of tho graduated land tax. It points out that the graduated tax was a punitive measure,'.having for its •'object the compulsory breaking up of large estates. With the war hampering dealings in land it may be expected that however anxio'us the'big land-, holder might Jje to his holding, he would experience difficulty in finding buyers _ at ' what would be regarded in ordinary times as a fair market value. Thus, in increasing the graduated land tax with the-ostensible object of raising war revenue the Government in this instance is operating on a false basis, and the Big landholder is being penalised out 'of proportion to all other sections of- the community. It may be that in most cases he is able to bear the imposition, but the fact that he is carrying so large a share of the burden should go to his credit. The new, beer duty is very widely condemned, >on the ground that it is not heavy'enough,, and that a heavier duty would have relieved the Government of the necessity of imposing some of the .petty taxes likely to cause irritation, without producing any appreciable addition to the revenue. Last year the beer duty of 3d. per gallon produced £127,000, and seeing that the new duty is expected to bring in only £55,000 more, the increase is, roughly, at the rate of l-Jd. a gallon. This is so moderate that it has occasioned a good cTeal of comment, beer being regarded by most people as one of the things well able to carry a heavier duty. Our suggestion that the Government should take stens to ensure that the tiew duty should not be passed on by the wealthy brewery firms to the hotelkeeper and consumer has led to a_ correspondent' affording us certain information regarding small breweries, which goes to show that some at ( least of tho smaller firms do not reap anything like the harvest falls to the lot of tho bigger establishments. The no doubt before doing anything in the matter will look into the merits of the question.