THE LAND TAX

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 10

THE LAND TAX

MR. O'REGAN ON THE BUDGET

'There.is one factor in connection with the Budget with which I find myself in hearty accord," said Mr. P. J. O'Regan today, "namely, that public works are to be carried on out of revenue. I have long held the view that we should add another million to taxation, and cut down on borrowing outside the country. I cannot imagine more of a stain on our self-respect as a people than the implication that the money-lander is fiscally indispensible.

"We must give complete regard to the assurances of Ministers that the present is really a preliminary step— that further readjustments of taxation are to be regarded as consequential on what'is now before the country. In this connection it is well to remember that the great reforms in taxation brought about by the Peel Government in 1845 were more fully developed by Gladstone in his memorable Budgets of 1853 and 1860, but in that case the development was protracted on account of wars abroad in which England became implicated. There were 1052 dutiable articles when Peel made his first breach in the walls of privilege in 1841, and the number was reduced successively until, after Gladstone's Budget of 1860, there remained only COMMUNITY VALUE OF. LAND. "Needless to say, I sympathise wholeheartedly with what Mr. Nash says in his Budget about appropriating the community value of land. No truth is more simple and obvious than the fact that in the matter of natural rights one man is as good as another, and the best and greatest natural right is the right of every man to the land of his own country. That right can be asserted in one way only—by the appropriation of the community value for community purposes. "Yes, I am gratified by the increase in the land tax, but I still assert that the principle of graduation is impolitic, and is an unnecessary complication. What is required is a flat tax without exemption, levied on exactly the same principle as the rating on unimproved value in this city. Despite the. inexcusable absence of statistics—we have had no statistics in this connection in thirty years—we know that five-sixths of the freeholders of this country have never paid land tax, for the reason that i the unimproved value of their properties does not exceed £500.

"But the £500 . exemption means really much more than what it says, in that every property having an un-

improved value not exceeding £1500 is allowed a reduction of £500. Why should the' owner of a £1500 property pay on £1000 only? Fully onethird of the,, freeholders of the country are in that position as we get no revenue whatever from an immense area, though we are put to the expense of valuing it. A flat tax of Id per pound would produce more revenue than the land and income tax outlined in the Budget. OPPOSED TO INCOME TAX. "O.C course, we Henry George men are opposed to the income tax. The land tax goes back to immemorial antiquity, but the income tax only to 1799. Gladstone, the greatest of financiers and Parliamentarians, the sponsor of thirteen Budgets in the House of Commons, was opposed to the income tax, and planned its complete abolition. It is interesting to recall that when Disraeli issued his reply to Gladstone's election manifesto in 1874, though he made unscrupulous use against Gladstone of the prejudices aroused because of the disestablishment of the Irish Church and the Alabama arbitration, tacitly accepted his policy to abolish the income tax. Unfortunately Gladstone lost the election of 1874, though the majority of electors voted for him. And so the culmination of his great financial scheme was prevented. All taxes on earnings are wrong in principle, because they are unethical. We deny the right of any taxing authority, no matter how' powerful it may be, to take any portion of individual earnings. I cannot imagine a greater injustice than unjust taxation. If your property is misappropriated by a pickpocket or burglar, you can invoke the aid of the law, but unjust taxation - means that the taxgatherer comes invested with the majesty of the law, to perform what is in reality an act of piracy. "The Budget leaves the Customs tariff untouched, but let us hope that reform in this direction will not long be deferred. I maintain that the man who has no property should pay no taxation whatsoever, and as 40 per cent, of our taxation is Customs, its greatest victim is necessarily the working man. I prefer to regard the Budget rather as a start in the right direction than as a final development."