INCOME TAX

Northern Advocate, 3 May 1932, Page 6

INCOME TAX

POLICY DEPRECATED LABOUR PROTESTS. MR. HOLLAND CRITICAL. (Per Press Association. —Copy'cht.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The Government's latest pronouncement regarding its taxation policy was attacked by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. 11. E. Holland, in a speech at Lower Hutt last evening. Mr. Holland said when a protest was made against the wage reductions and flat-rate wages tax, working men were told that taxpayers with high incomes would have to contribute their quota towards meeting the national liability. Later, the Minister of Finance intimated that, in order to keep the dofieit in the current year down to. £2,000,000, 'he Avonld have to save over £4,000,000 in expenditure and raise over £2,000,000 in additional taxation. Now it was announced that £2,200,000 was to be borrowed from the banks on the surety of the reserve locked up in soldiers’ settlement lands, ami no further taxes were to be imposed this year. The Labour Party had repeatedly protested that the country could not continue to increase taxation without strengthening the source from which taxes were drawn. It had always been opposed to the Government’s policy of burning the candle at both ends by reducing the incomes of the people and increasing taxes on what remained, but the Government was now giving wealthier taxpayers immunity from further taxation. The new loan from the banks was solely for tin’s purpose, and not to facilitate production or to reduce existing debts. It meant blowing out the candle at the wrong end. ■ The interest on the new loan Would be an additional charge on the Consolidated Fund, and in a year’s time they would possibly find the Government telling them that, in order to balance the Budget, further salary and wage reductions would have to bo made. The rank and file of the people would feel they had been made tbe victims of a political confidence trick in this connection. If taxes were to be imposed, they should fall, in the first instance, on the incomes of the wealthy.

For a number of years, however, Labour had consistently argued that the way out of the difficulty was not by increasing taxation, but by utilising the people’s credit. The hypothecation of soldiers’ settlement securities was the equivalent of a very modified use of the people’s credit, and in this case it. had been used for the relief of a moneyed class that did not need relief. A better way would be to utilise the whole of the public credit in a Dominion-wide effort towards reconstruction and rehabilitation. INSTALMENT METHOD. DETAILS INCOMPLETE. (From Our Parliamentary Special.) WELLINGTON, This Day. According to a. statement by the Prime .Minister, the details of the new income tax instalment system, to be inaugurated by legislation this ■week, has yet to be worked out, but 'the general idea is that after the initial payment of a portion of the tax, instalments can follow at the discretion of the taxpayer.

ilr Forbes said he was not sure whether the practice adopted-in Britain could be closely followed in Mow Zealand. He thought, the method would lie of substantial benefit to the individual who wished to make his payments half yearly.