DOUBLE TAXATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 3 July 1943, Page 4

DOUBLE TAXATION

SUPERANNUATION INCOME PLEA MADE FOR REMISSION (From Our Parliamentary Repox*ter) Wellington, July 2. A suggestion that the Government consider remitting social .security taxation on superannuation income to the extent of at least the amount of the age benefit was made by Mr W. S. Goosman (Opposition, Waikato), during discussion on the Finance Bill in the House of Representatives. He considered it was an injustice that superannuitants should have to pay the shilling in the pound social security tax while people who had made no attempt to save for old age were not taxed on the age benefit. Mr Goosman said it was wrong that members of the Public Service, for example, should have to pay the social security charge on their superannuation. It meant double taxation on their income and it was impossible for many of them to draw the age benefit. The principle was wrong. Mr A. S. Richards (Government, Roskill): The medical and hospital services alone are worth the tax. Speaking later, Mr H. E. Combs (Government, Wellington) said that fully half the employees of the Public Service would be glad to contract out of the Public Service superannuation fund, but for the fact that their withdrawal from it would, in the case of temporary employees, cancel out any chance of their earning increased pay. The social security benefits were so substantial that a public servant making his full contribution to the superannuation fund got value to the extent of 20s in the pound every year of his life.