DEATH DUTIES FOR REVENUE .

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1933, Page 12

DEATH DUTIES FOR REVENUE .

(To the Editor.) Sir, —For a ' considerable time past I have been impressed with the necessity for a readjustment. or the death duties tax payable in New Zealand. The crushing taxation levied upon the living makes life scarcely worth living. And so we must turn to the dead! It must be granted, I think, that the more we take from the dead, the less we need to take from the living. At present the position is about as' follo\ys: —On estates of less than £1000 there is no. death duty or probate tax. On estates up to £2000 the rate is 1 per cent., rising 1 per cent, up to £4000. From £4000 to £10,000 it jumps up .1 per cent.i for every £2000; thus up to £10,000 the rate is 6 per cent. . From £10,000 to £50,000 the rate is increased 1 per cent, on every £5,000, the rate on the £50,000 being 14 per cent. Prom £50,000 to £100,000 the rate is increased 1 per cent, for every £10,000, and at £100,000 is 20 per cent. ,The rate is 30 per cent, on all over £100,000, so that the tax on an estate of £150,000 is £35,000. What I suggest is that the tax be graded from. 1 per cent, on estates up to £2000—as at present, but that the rate be increased by one-half of 1 per cent, for every thousand pounds. The net result would be to ease the burden on comparatively small estates and greatly increase it on very large estates. Between £2000 and £13,000 'my scheme would mean a charge of 1 per cent, less than the present rate, but. at £14,000 my rate would be the same las now charged, namely, 7 per cent. At £20,000, however, my rate would be 10 per cent., while the present rate is only 8 per cent. At £30,000 myrate would be 15 per cent, while the present rate is only 10 per cent. At £50,000 my rate would be 25 per cent, while the present rate is only 14 per cent., while at £100,000 my >ate would be 50 per cent, while the present rate is only 20 per cent. I would limit my rate to 50 per cent._ no matter how large the estate; Sf I continued the process the man leaving £200,000 would be taxed £200,000! I know this scheme will raise many protests, but it is fair and equitable. We can only make money as a result of the activities of others. Left to himself, a man could not make one penny profit. The death duty tax is only a charge for services rendered. It is absolutely fair in its operation; it demands payment in exact ratio to ability to pay. I am, etc., SHELDON.