Discouraged By High Taxes

Northern Advocate, 11 August 1948, Page 3

Discouraged By High Taxes

WELLINGTON, Wed. (P.A.) . “There is little doubt that heavy taxation is one of the loads contributing largely to the deterioration or lack of development of lands and their subsequent withdrawal from production.” says the annual report of the Meat Producers’ Board.

“The average New Zealand farmer is far from being a moneyed person and consequently most capital improvements to his farm have to be financed from income. “When a farmer finds the income pool out of which he would draw funds is first to be depleted by taxation he is often discouraged to the point of ceasing to effect desired improvements. “Some relaxation in our income tax laws to allow as deductible expenditure for income tax purposes moneys spent on certain capital improvements to farms would be welcomed.” the report continues. EVENTUAL GAIN

“This would no doubt benefit the individual farmer, but the farsighted will realise that the loss in national income should eventually prove to be a permanent national gain. “The' greatest advantage to the world and the primary producer would be stable economic conditions without the mad dog chasing its tail complex of present-day living. “Instead of the folly of wages, costs and prices chasing each other upward, there should be a period of reasonableness and understanding, with a result that a man’s earnings would once again have a stable value in the community.”