SOLpIERS AND TAXATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3119, 25 June 1917, Page 4

SOLpIERS AND TAXATION

The questions raised by a correspondent this morning regarding the payment of rates and taxes by soldiers on active service is not a new one, but it has not yet received adequate consideration. The reason for this perhaps has been that in the caso of the single men called on for service it has not been, savo. in exceptional instances, a 'pressing matter. With the. married men, and more particularly those with families, this and other questions will havft bo be-reconsidered, and in a now light. It surely is tho height of injustice to call on a man to risk his life for his country, at the same H'me depriving him of his'ordinary earning power, and then to demand that he should pay taxation based on his higher inoome for the year prcccdingliis enrolment as a unit m the fighting forces. A cian might have an income of £400 a- year from his personal earnings as a civilian, and bo called on after joining tho ranks at six shillings it day to. pay income tax on his civilian earnings. His wife and family will be forced to' live on his reduced income, and will have nothing to spare for taxation. A year later, of course, be '■•will have no taxation to pay on bis income, which \will consist only of his soldier's pay. The matter is one of some importance, for, broadly speaking, tho larger the income of a family has been before tho enlistment of the bread-winner, tho more difficult it will bo in most cases for tho family to adjust itself to tho roduced circumstances of a soldiers pay. We are, of course, referring only to cases whore, the income is from personal earnings, and- not from investments or property. In the matter of tho remission of rates the position is more difficult. Ihe payment of rates implies ownership of property, but it also means in most cases a mortgage and interest charges to bo met, so that tho, property owner may in many instances have greater obligations to leave behind him and moro worries to carry than the man less well off. 'The Government must face the many problems raised by the call on the Second Division fairly and in a liberal spirit. The men who are called on to sacrifice their positions and risk their lives for their country should at least be relieved from those other burdens of citizenship which the non-fighters are both willing and able to bear.