RACING CLUB'S TAXES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20024, 14 August 1928, Page 11

RACING CLUB'S TAXES.

NEARLY £70,000 LAST YEAR.

SUPPORT FOR GAMING BILL.

PUBLICATION OF DIVIDENDS. The heavy taxation imposed upon racing clubs and 4 the public by the Government was referred to by Sir Edwin Mitchelson, president of the Auckland Racing Club, in his address at the annual meeting of members yesterday. "In taxation during the year the club's meetings have been responsible for the payment to the Government of £69,922 (£3544 more than last year), which with land tax £ISBO and local rates, including water, £2020, makes a total of £73,522, Sir Edwin said. "The club received £250 as a rebate from the Government. The result of the above figures clearly shows that taxes and rates cost the club and public nearly £7OOO for each day s racing. While I regret the Government cannot see its way to reduce racing taxation, 1 fully realise the exigencies of the State must come first, and I cannot see any material reduction in racing taxation can be hoped for in the near future, as the Dominion's interest bill is annually growing.

"If the Government would take up and pass the Gaming Bill to provide for the telegraphing of money to racecourses the revenue thus provided would enable the Government either to reduce taxation or do away altogether with the heavy tax on owners. This would greatly assist in eliminating the bookmakers —at the present time there are more bookmakers operating in New Zealand than ever bofore—and thereby greatly increase the amount that would naturally go through the totalisator.

"The Government is continually being (old the taxation levied on racing is tending toward the ruin of the smaller clubs, without indicating in what direction taxation should be reduced. The rules of the conference clearly show how stakes are to be provided out of the totalisator receipts. Some clubs contribute a portion of the stakes out of ordinary revenue and this, together with the contributions to the expenses of the conference, and the heavy expenditure necessary to comply with the requirements of the conference as regards racecourse equipment, affect the finances of the smaller clubs very materially." "We have to accept the inevitable in the meantime and we can only hopo there will be some amelioration at an early date," remarked Mr. C. E. Major. "The public pays, but tho owners pay this taxation in an even greater ratio, a fact which few people know. I believe if the Gaming Bill were passed it would help to mitigate taxation. A lot of money is now finding its way into the pockets of the bookmakers. Why there is an embargo placed upon the publication of dividends I do not know and it is a fact always hard to understand. It is altogether illogical and the more one examines it the more illogical it is discovered to be."

"The Government receives a larger sum in taxation than the owners receive in stakes, which is not right," the president said in reply.