Paying Taxes On Taxes

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 39, 16 February 1938, Page 4

Paying Taxes On Taxes

Leader of Opposition Critical POSITION REGARDING UNEMPLOYMENT Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. Drawing attention to the great quickening interest evident in politics in New Zealand, tho leader of the Na tional Party, Hon. Adam Hamilton, in a speech at Marton to-night, said wha‘ struck him about the National Party’s organisation was the prominent part be ing taken by young men. He criti cised the present Government’s taxa tion policy, stating that the Labour Government was the most rapacious tax collector in the Dominion’s history. Mr. Hamilton drew attention to the fact that income tax this year had to be paid on unemployment tax, which had already been taken from the people’s salaries. That was paying taxes on taxes. If the imposition were not so unfair it would be a fit subject for Gilbert and Sullivan, he added. Dealing with tho unemployment situation, he said that the Minister’s latest estimate of the total unemployed was 16,056. To this number there could be added a few thousand working full time in subsidised industries, bringing the total to, say, 20,000 all told. Unemployment taxation totalled £5,180,000. If one split this amount amongst the total number of unemployed, it averaged at over £SO per man per year. Men on sustenance would get much less than that, so the majority would get considerably more. In conclusion, Mr. Hamilton classed the unemployment tax levied on girls as unjust, and said the unemployment tax would be one of the first taxes to bo removed when the National Party came into office.