Burden of Taxation

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 230, 11 September 1922, Page 7

Burden of Taxation

INDUSTRIES STRANGLED. SUGGESTIONS FOR RELIEF. The present heavy taxation and its efi< i t upon industries were touched upon by a number of speakers at the annual meeting on Wednesday oi the I Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. | In his retiring address as president, Mr. S. A. Orchard said that any relief irom taxation would be welcome. The capital which should he utilised in improving industry and for the promotion oi new ventures was passing to the State, which was not such a good manager of capital as the leaders of private enterprise. There were tliousands in New Zealand who did not pay taxes, and. to his mind, when j times were so bad that the Government must increase its revenue con--4 siderably. and could only sen re it by taxation, every individual should be j made to pay. Apparently the only i way of relict was through the Cuscuois. Why not increase the* primage i to 5 per cent. ? The public would i hardly feel that, and it would bring |in revenue of probably £1,500,000 a year. The extra amount received through these channels would be a considerable relief to those who were | at present carrying the hulk of the i burden. Cabinet now had before it the recommendations of a special committee oi business men upon the subject of taxation, which had been set up at the instance of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. The Budget lately introduced did not inspire confidence of an early reduction in taxation, but probably after the general election Cabinet might be more liberal in its views.

•‘The present methods of taxation urgently call for .investigation and readjustment,” declared Professor J. B. Condliffe, in the course of an address at another stage* of the meeting. He said that, in particular, the income Jtax should be made a tax upon personal income instead of upon company profits. The fact that if the present unfair method of company taxation were repealed and direct taxation of personal income substituted it would be necessary, if the same amount of taxation were to be obtained, to double the rates of taxation upon incomes between £3OO and £2OOO. was the measure of the extent to which the small shareholder, and therefore the joint-stock method oi busihess. were penalised at present. Other speakers also referred to the question. Mr. E. H. Wyles said that the enormous taxation was preventing the development of the primary production of the Dominion. It was necessary for the Government to realise the fact that it should not base its taxation upon the prosperity engendered by the high prices realised by many classes of produce in the overseas market. A lower level of prices was inevitable. Mr. T. G. Russell said that it was impossible for the Dominion to progress while its industries were strangled so effectively by the enormous taxation. If the primary industries languished through the heavy taxation, there was not much hope of the secondary industries or business generally progressing. A system of taxation whereby taxes had to be paid whether a man had made money or not was likely to bring dire results. He also made reference to

the cost of government. It was absurd. he said, that so large a body of men should be maintained to govern the country. Business men had been supine in allowing men with no business training to control £28,000,000 a “We have a meat pool; it is high time wo had a brain pool,” declared Mr. L. A. Rutherford. The farmer had the training to manage his own farm, he said, but the running of the country was a solid business proposition. He did not want to criticise the Government, but it was time that men without business training should withdraw from the “rotten entanglement” that they had made. Mr. Rutherford added that the farmer was unable, through taxation and the financial situation, to keep his land free from noxious weeds and jiests. There was an impression that farmers mould my less this year in taxation, but he did not think that this was so. Many would be required to pay more. It was to the business men that the farming community looked for support in the matter.