LAND TAXATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 24

LAND TAXATION

ABOLITION URGED

DISCUSSION ON BILL

Pointing out that the competitors ofl the New Zealand primary producers abroad did not pay land tax, Mr. W. J. Poison (National, Stratford) attacked the principle of land taxation when the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill was in the Committee stage in the House of Representatives yesterday. The owner of land paid all the taxes levied on other sections of the community, and had to pay land tax as well, he said. The unfairness was that, in effect, the primary producer paid tax on the means by which he produced. The Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. A. Hamilton) said that there was no special virtue or privilege in holding land, and there was no reason why farmers should have to pay land tax, especially now that they were all to be required to pay income tax. The land was the farmer's means of living; after all, a tradesman was not taxed on the value of his tools of trade.

Replying, the Acting Leader of the House (the Hon. P. Fraser) said that the Government intended later in the session, if events moved normally, to introduce a Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill, which would give full opportunity for discussing the whole principle of taxation and whether there was any unfairness in a combination of land tax and income tax. The Bill would apply to assessments made next year.

Further criticism of the principle of land taxation was voiced by Opposition members, and the clause in the Bill relating to land tax was challenged in its entirety, but was retained by 35 votes to 23.

There was no further discussion on the Bill, which was put through its third reading and passed.