TAXING BILLS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 September 1927, Page 5

TAXING BILLS

THIRD READINGS PASSED PRIME MINISTER’S DEFENCE, HOPE OF REDUCTION.

tHY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 9. In moving in the House or Representatives to-day the third reading of the Hand and Income Tax (annua.!j Ill'Ll, the Hon, W. Downie Steivaxt said: it wa* tile irony oi ■polities that he should- be the .subject- of the .storm which i had arisen over this Bill, because he always bad been in favour of Joav taxation. It, avus uui fortunate: that iie- had not been able to Jay before the House the AAiio.e taxation proposals of the year, -but a when the Customs l anift came down they Avouild be in a better position to judge how far taxation had been increased.

All sides of the House, Avcre agreed that the present scale Avas inequitable, but there seemed t-q be tlie greatest d; nerence of opinion as to how these inequalities Aveie to be removed. One wanted one thing and one another. The Minister complained of misrepresentation aa luoll he said was widespread- regarding the increase of taxaOnly that day lie A\ ri as A'isited by an Englishman, avJio- had just receive!l his income assessment from England. His taxable income was £BSO, on Avhicli he had to pay £125. Here in New Zealand he won Id only liave to paj r £4O or £42, iso that it A\;as evident the jieople her© were particularly Avefl off. *His English viss.-tor wns- astounded and could not understand what all riie “bobary” Avas about. The Minister desired to say definitely that whatever increase took place dii income tax it aaoulcl be taken off as the result of the revision of the Customs tariff.

Mi-. M. J. Savage said the schedule issued by the Goa- eminent to illustrate the inequalities in income tax was nob accepted by 'authorities- without question. They found there Avere not only inequalities but there A\-ere heavy increases. If the Government Avanted more money to- carry on social services no one could A-ery well . object, but they should come out- in the open instead of taking £175,000 out of the pockets of tlie people under the guise of removing inequalities. In this respect. the Government had broken faith with the ejectors. He did not deny that increased taxation was necessary, -but that was not the policy of the Government- and he Avanted -tlie Government frankly to admit- it-.

Mr G. W. Forbes, Sir John Luke, Sir Joheph Ward. Messrs. A. Harris, J. A. Lee, J. McOomb.s, H. Atniore and H. EL Holland also spoke.

The Prime Minister said it was natural that tli© Opposition should bake eA-ery oppo.rtunity to criticise the Government and even stretch their oppo-runities for criticism. In 1925 the Government had reduced taxation, but lie denied that the Government had ever promised to the people that they would .reduce taxation next- year. They hoped to do so and do it substantially. No Government would willingly ii.crea.se taxation. H’is Government wanted to reduce it, but. they must do if on a, fair and equitable basis. Mr. Coates did not believe any section of the House AA-ou-ld ' urge an allround reduction in income tax on tlie •schedule a,s it existed to-day. They had just passed through the greatest crisis of modern times and it was a question of a fair and equitable basis for those who had taxable incomes. He did not believe tlie aa-,lioJ© of the burden should be put on to those avlio had tlie larger incomes, but, taking 1924 as a fair basis, he believed the proposals of the Government- AA-oukl distribute the burden as evenly as it could reasonably be done.

When the House resumed af 7.30 the -Prime Minister continued, emphasising that before ally general reduction of taxation could take place the schedule must be fair and equitable, and that was the aim of the Minister of Finance.

A comparison of the schedule of 1914 with, the schedule of to-day showed that many taxpayers were not- -bearing a fair share of the taxation necessary to pay the Inabilities inclined as a result of the wflfr and the period of oommercial depression through which we had been passing. Mr. Coates referred to the figures published by the Government as neing accurate and reliable. Much of the Press criticism, was not fair and many of their arguments in favour of the taxpayers applied with, equal force to the Government’s responsibilities to meet Its charges. The Government t was striving to reduce taxation and would do its duty in that direction without fear of criticism or favour to any section of the community. He believed we were going to have a good year, but- that would not affect the re.venue of this year and it was the duty of the Government to keep the credit of the country .sound. The Govemmeu was sincere and honest and was striving to put its finances !im such a' position as ’to enable it to carry out next year reductions which lie believed to he" desirable and possible. The debate was continued by Mr. P'. Fraser, the Hon. R. A:. Wright, Messrs. Ye itch, W. A. D. Jonesy and Mr. J. Girling and the Bill was read •i third time on the voices and passed. The Hon. Down’e Stewart moved the third reading of the. Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill. Mr. M. J.Savage argued that as a city man had to pay both 'land and income. tax the country landowner .should also pay income tax. Sevensixteenths of the land tax was paid by the men 'in tire cities- and towns, the remaining naie-sixteentins being paid by the country, but the bulk of the income tax was paid by the men in the cities and towns, who had to pay higher taxes because others with large incomes escaped altogether. The principle that incomes derived from the land' should not pay income tax could not be defended on., any grounds whatsoever. The. Prime Minister,_ in reply, defended the non-collection of mc<vne tax front landowners on the grounds that the making out- of income tax forms was tedious and irksome and in most cases useless because so few farmers had to pay income tax. When the farmers bad to put in returns the department- was inundated 1 with complaints. The department recognised it was an annoyance and served- no good purpose. The debate was continued by Messrs. T. D. Burnett end J. A. Lee. the- Hon. A. D. McLeod and Mr. H'. G. Ru Mason until 11.45. when the third reading was agreed to. on the voices and the Bill was passed.