TAXATION POINTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1920, Page 3

TAXATION POINTS

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARTIES. [Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WBTJ.rwrprnivr a a

VV IliJjijiiN u ±UiM, August 0. An English suggestion for the levy on capital invested in war bonds was described by Air T. Wiltord in opening' the Financial Debate to-night, tne member for Halt suggesting that it should be • considered by experts with a view to devising some method of reducing unr enormous National Debt, a matter which the Budget had overlooked. If the holders of war bonds over £IO,OOO agreed to hand over to the State interest payments on one-tenth of their holdings for fourteen years, this 1 amount of bond holding could be ; wiped out. He would not trench on small investors nor Rost Office • certificates, but it would be reasonable to ask the larger holders to assist the State in the heavy interest burden. He contended that tlie Government had laded to reach the large avenues of taxation. Last year there was only an increase of £45,000 in the Land Tax, but there was one man alone in New Zealand whose income was £50,000 a year. The Government bad failed to touch large estates or increase graduation on large incomes, the result

bei.no* that a man gettin g £3O, neb ■ from property paid the same .tax as a man earning fCTTOO. Whatever the newspapers said, Hip differenoe between the Liberal and the .'Reform parties was that the , former stood for increased graduation on the Land Tax, the Income Tax, and death duties, bnt Reform preferred to leave these alone. The greatest failure in regard to constructive statesmanship revealed in the Budget was this neglect to tap these easily collected sources of revenue. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Kos worthy), who followed the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, told the House that the capital levy scheme referred to had been turned down by English financial experts. He did not deny that the incidence ox taxation did uoi require to be revised, but it must not be a case of taxation and still more taxation. He believed that the whole foundations of taxation wanted broadening, so that every-

ocu\ sno'iua coniriDute even ins mite. Members: They do it through tlie Customs. Mr Aar worthy went on to denounce taxation of mortgages as equivalent to taxing a man on his debt. This must be a heavy burden indeed. Personally he favoured increasing the Amusement Tax. “I would ram taxation home every time on these cheap amusements,” declared the Minister, “instead of putting it on those wl\o are struggling +" pay Income Tax and to 1 male both ends meet.”