HOW LARGE LANDOWNERS WILL BE AFFECTED.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 185, 7 August 1917, Page 6

HOW LARGE LANDOWNERS WILL BE AFFECTED.

A Christchurch business man made _«oiae rather startling statements as i > tlie way in which the new tax--atiou will affect the large land-own-fir (reports.the^.Press). ..Me said:.— . - "ln the first instance, it is obvious that the man who makes his income out of land is going to be hit very much harder than the one who derives his income from commerce; ■even though the latter should be directly due to profits arising from the war. The doiiig away with the ■Exemption of a per cent, oil the capital value when assessing income derived from land is going to hit the landowner very heavily indeed. To take an extreme case as an example: .'A landowner owning an estate of, say, £200,000 'unimproved value would pay, in the first instance, 10id in the £ unimproved value. This, presuming he earns 6 per cent, on the value, would absorb three-fourths -©I the income s away in land tax, he would then be called upon to pay 7s • <6d in the £ en income tax, which would mean that he was paying 22s *6d in the £ altogether. The unfairness lies in the withdrawal of the exemption of the o per cent, on the ■capital value. The answer to this is, of course, that if the owner were ■earning 10 per cent, or 12 per cent, •on the capital value, he would still have an income of from, perhaps, £6000 a year left to him out of, say, .£20,000. Still, the fact remains

that a large landowner will be asked

to pay 7s 6d in' the £ income tax 9 on a large sum of money that he~has already paid away to the Governinent in the form of graduated lana tax. The taxation on high incomes, too, derived from interest on mortgages will be very drastic at 10_d in /the £; the average income per'£l lieing only about ls Id. The rate of 7s 6d in the £ is going to-operate very harshly on small shareholders, iu ■■."companies, as any large company "will have to pay the s maximum rate ■of 7s 66 .in the £, y while the people deriving:"the income may; bo andiviHually - pqor/-' -ylti some Gonipaiues, r , s ßjich, io?!!:'.i.osia^ce^..-Bs.--:th_,-'-_riis!f!.Co_i-' , pany, which -'' have heen • adversely -/affected by war conditions, .lie iii■come tax will trench very heavily •/upon the dividends payable, in many .cases, to people of small means.,, *