TAXATION ON SPORTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 October 1922, Page 7

TAXATION ON SPORTS

EFFECT ON RACING CLUBS A protest against the taxation of the receipts of sports bodies was made at the annual meeting of the AucklaiM branch _of the ew Zealand Sports IProtection League. The chairman, Mr R. B. Lusk, said that during the season the taxation of sports bodies had been of such a crushing nature that it devolved upon them to find some relief, or the -whole of the sporting fraternity would be squeezed out of existence. It was clear that such a tax was unjust. Athletjc sports bodies were in poor finance, and it was only with difficulty that some of them were struggling along. It was beyond doubt that the amusement tax had a detrimental effect upon attendance at the games, and in his opinion the tax should be abolished. 1

The League held the view that racing clubs were being unjustly treated. The existence of the to tali sat or -,vas justified, but the present excessive taxation upon totalisator receipts, apart from its injustice, had conduced to illicit betting with bookmakers, with all its attendant evils. There were no proprietary racing or trotting clubs in New Zealand, and the clubs were managed entirely in the pubic interest by men who gave their services without reward. The excessive taxation upon racing was threatening to evush it out of existence. Already the one-day country clubs were practically strangled, it being impossible for them to continue, and unless relief from taxation was found, their extinction was the matter of only a little while. Even the Auckland Rating Club was face to face with the fact that it would have to reduce its stakes and curtail its expenditure, to carry on. The excessive taxation would certainly tend (o close horse-breeding establishments, and competent' authorities recognised that no scheme of Government importation of stallions or for breeding would adequately take their place. The League would oppose every effort to abolish a legitimate sport or to impose on it an undue, special, and distinctive taxation.

The chairman's remarks wen; endorsed bv Messrs H. R. Mackenzie, C. E. Major, and J. Rowe. A resolution was passed taking strong exception to the imposition of any tax on (lie profits of sports bodies.