TAXATION COMMISSION

Gisborne Times, Volume LX, Issue 9797, 6 May 1924, Page 5

TAXATION COMMISSION

FURTHER EVIDENCE

AT CHRIST CHURCH

CHRISTCHURCH, May 5

At to-day’s sitting of the Taxation Commission, Mr J. 1). Hall, president of the North Canterbury Farmers’ Union, said bis theory, was that the land tax, which was inequitable, should he altered. There should he a fiat rate and an allowance for mortgages. A farmer should be taxed on°his income, not on his debts. Ln England a farmer was taxed on his income. Dealing with indirect taxation, Mr iriail said the amount paid by the farmers for land tax was small compared with the taxes which he paid indirectly and which were the main reasons for the increased cost of production on farms. That cost was more than double what it was before the war. Mr W. H. Nicholson, secretary of the Canterbury Sheepowners’ Union, said that his executive wished him to specially stress the point that the land tax, as at present levied, was a capital tax pure and simple and it was imposed on one section of the community only, and they urged that if the capital tax was found to he unavoidable in order to provide means for meeting the expenses of the Government, all capital, however employed, should be made to bear its share equally with that used in working the land for production, so that some measure of relief might be given to primary producers. Mr B. EL Whitcombe, managing director of Whitcombe and Tombs, said the graduated land tax levied on industrial companies fell unjustly

/ on thorn, ns it hindered the expansion 4of industry- and the fu l ! number of "hands would not be employed. Mr Oiiarles Ogilvie, managing director of Beath and C'o. v drapers, suggested that the profits passed to reserve in a business such as theirs should bo treated on a. lower scale of income lax. with a view oi conseryinrr capital. The ultimate gain would be” steadv dividends and steady income tax, so both shareholders and the Government would eventually reap the benefit.—P.A.