BURDEN OF TAXATION

Evening Star, Issue 18336, 25 July 1923, Page 2

BURDEN OF TAXATION

RACING CLUBS HARD HIT, ‘‘BEYOND ALL PROPORTION/ If relief from taxation is not forthcoming in Hie near future some, of tho racing clubs in this country will have to go out of existence. This club will not be able to go in for a. scheme of improvements at Wingatni while 1 the imposition of the present heavy taxation continues. Tima spoke Mr L. C. Hazlctt when seconding the motion for the adoption of tho report and balance-sheet at the annual 1 meeting of the Dunedin Jockey Club lust 1 night. Mr Hazlctt gave a detailed statej meat of amounts paid; hy the club in the 1 way of taxation to the Government during | Hie oast ten years. The figures were as | follow

Total £124,019 2 3 lie thought tile lime had arrived when they an racing men should assert themselves. lie suggested that the question could be put to candidates for parliamentary honors. The plain truth was that they bad taken in a Iters too quietly in the past, and it looked as if an attempt were being made to crush them out of existence. Mr K. 11. Lough, treasurer to tho club, said that, although tins balance-sheet showed a deficit of £2,229, nothing had been written off for depreciation, which really made the position worse. Members could quite, understand tho committee’s anxieties, for it knew the club was losing money all the time. It was precluded from spending money on the trades. A regrettable fact was that the club bad not previously Kid a better year than it- had enjoyed during the past, twelve months. It had not previously bad better racing, ami tho revenue kept up remarkably well. Under those circumstances the club nyglit reasonably have expected to have earned a- very handsome profit; bid, as was mentioned; by Mr Tlnzlett, the Government took close on £24,000. The speaker then proceeded to justify the club’s action in raising the stakes. Critics of 'racing contended, he said, that the taxation did not come out of tho club’s finances, but from the pockets of the public. He ((be speaker) gave this a, denial, and stonily contended that the club paid the taxation. Mr Lough instanced tho amount, deducted from'-some of the principal races. The ‘Dunedin Cup was advertised' to be worth £1.500, but the cheques received by the owners of the placed horses totalled £1.P50, the Government taking £l5O, The same thing was done with regard to the totalisator fax, the Government (ailing 3s out of every pound sterling invested on the machine. How could any man, he asked, bo expected to make money at racing under such an imposition ! Mr Lough then quoted further figures showing how the club had progressed. Tu 1913 the slakes offered amounted to £11,290, and in 1923 £27,330 was given—an increase of 163 per cent. The lota lisa tor turnover had increased from £148,286 in 1913 to £2/8,789 in 1923—-an increase of 88 per cent. In 1913 the Government taxation was £3.830 and in 1923 £23,937 —an increase equal to 527 per cent. He considered that the dull was amply justified in asking for a reduction in taxation. Tie though I, the Government now saw (he hanchvlting on the wall, and that, relief would come shortly. Unless .something wore done he feared l that racing clubs would bo wiped off the slate. Mr B- S. Irwin, white agreeing that taxation was heavy, said he. could not admit that it was borne altogether by the. club. 'This applied equally to the dividend tax and the tax on stakes. It was the racing public who paid tho lax.

1912-13 £3.830 1 8 1913-14 4,278 5 1 1914-15 4,677 18 1 1915-16 7,615 1 3 1916-17 . 7,440 0 2 1917-18 7,026 5 3 1918-19 10,879 0 7 1919-20 15,536 9 9 1920-21 ' 17,562 9 8 1921-22 22,134 8 2 1922-23 23,989 2 7