AUSTRALIA EASING TAXATION.

Evening Star, Issue 18050, 18 August 1922, Page 6

AUSTRALIA EASING TAXATION.

MELBOURNE, August 18,

In the House of Representatives, on the Budget, Mr Bruce foreshadowed relief of taxation as follows:—An increase in the general exemption of £lO4 and £156 for single and married respectively to £2OO for all taxpayers; a reduction in the existing graduated income tax rates by 10 per cent.; a reduction to companies on a flat rate from 2s Sd to 2s 5d in the £; a removal of the “ war shortage ” 20 percent. extra on the land tax; a (removal of the entertainments tax where the admission is less than a shilling; a reduction of the duty on galvanised iron, iron and steel wire, wire netting, and tractors; and provision of a bounty for goods. It is also suggested to reduce the parliamentary salaries from £I,OOO to £BOO.

The ’revenue for the current year is estimated at £62,518,250, or £494,557 above the expenditure. The Government proposes to create a sinking fund ■of per cent, on the total amount of indebtedness, with tho object of redeeming the war debt. Such a fund would extinguish tho debt in fifty years. The estimated expenditure on war pensions for the current vear is £6,750.000, being a decrease of £298,000. This reduction was due to the fact that the physical conditions of tho pensioners on the whole had improved. The repatriation expenditure was estimated l at £1,771,000, being a decrease of £321,000, due to progress in the re-establishment of tho soldiers in civil life. The Treasurer stated that the Washington Conference had made it possible to largely reduce the Defence expenditure, which he estimated at £5,854,000, as compared with £6,642,000 last year. He foreshadows the appointment of a Commission to 'consider reclassifying the Public Service, with a view to_ reducing its cost -and securing better efficiency. The Government proposes, as far as possible, to rely on the local money market for the raising and conversion of loans in future.