THE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18678, 7 April 1924, Page 7

THE INCIDENCE OF TAXATION

— —» -w—- —-TIVM Vi - a4JUXAXJ,V'iI , '! Sir,—lt appears to me that justice cannot be done to-the-.whole people' while there is atiy tax whatever levied on agricultural land, as the tax tends to increase the price that capital has to pay before money can be • profitably invested in drawing tie profits made by raising the necessaries of life. The: bigger the tax* the higher will, .be.... the : price of - land. If the small holder cannot prosper and pay the tax he will get his "valuations" put up in the - hope, of makitig a profit that Way. It ie my opinion that if there had never been any land tax levied by the State the present price of land would not have gone above the capitalisation, of the profits made by using the land. The profits made ; . in -the fish trad» are ■ not made ;in buying and selling sections : of the se?., but , are.'.' made 'by putting the products -of .: the sea to good- use. 'If the sea were cut ... up ; into' small sections and each section "valued" .' fo? taxation purposes the <people i who would pnseffthe' sea would pay the tax and naturally put up the price of 'fish, to the, consumer in order to get something for ' shareholders in the way of dividends. . Unless there can be dividends paid there i? stagnation and (lie sea, would remain non-productive: How increasing State taxation on the 'surveyed sections of the sea'is to help any section of the community to prosper I fail -to see. - What -will apply to the sea will apply to the land. - . The only fair tax for State purposes is the income tax, graduated as the income increases, so that .the wealthy classes of New Zealand shall not be "awef to buy 'up' the,' whole of the world's! industries. A. Sahtob.d.