SALES TAX

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 133, 7 June 1935, Page 9

SALES TAX

ABOLITION DESIRED

COMMERCIAL OPPOSITION

The result of a postal ballot among its constituent chambers oh the question of the abolition of the sales tax was announced at a meeting today of the executive of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, the majority opinion being in favour of pressing for /the outright abolition of the tax, in view of its undesirable nature, and the fact that the yield from it had greatly exceeded estimates.

The executive accordingly resolved that representations be made to the Government as follows:—

1. Tha 1 a multiplicity of taxes is burdensome to the community and particularly to traders. 2. With • a view to reducing the number of taxes levied, the Sales Tax Act be repealed. 3. If, as a result of this repeal, additional taxation is necessary, under another head, this association has no objection to an increase in other

established sources of taxation.

The president (Mr. A. H. Allen) remarked that the resolution did not mean the association was inviting extra taxation as a corollary to the abolition of the sales tax. Some chambers had given as their opinion that the Government should, by economies and strict control of expenditure, be able to remove the sales tax without imposing taxation under another heading or other headings. Also, the majority opinion was in favour of complete abolition of the sales tax, and not just a reduction in the rate of the tax, since •the cost and trouble to the commercial community, who were the collecting agents to the Government, would be just as great.