TAXATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20967, 2 September 1931, Page 10

TAXATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

The drafting of a comprehensive plan for the general economic rehabilitation of the Dominion appears to have, been undertaken as the objective of the Parliamentary Economy Committee. Its inquiries cannot be pursued very far 'without confronting the necessity for a reliable estimate of the national income, since it is essential to any consideration of taxable capacity and any plan of rehabilitation -which imposes taxation without regard to capacity will contain a destructive element. There is a reasonably reliable estimate that the national income was £150,000,000 in 1929. Calculations that are admittedly empirical indicate that the total for this year will be lower by anything from £30,000,000 to £45,000,000. . This tremendous reduction follows a period in which public taxation has been rapidly increasing and coincides with an attempt to raise a still larger sum. The growth of national and local taxation in recent years is illustrated by the following summary : Per head of Population. National. Local. Total. 1922-23 . . £ll 19 8 £3 9 7 £ls 9 3 1925-26 . . 12 711 318 8 16 6 7 1927-28 .. 11 17 7 4 4 10. 16 2 5 1928-29 . . 12 4 3 4 611 16 11 2 1929-30 .. 13 3 7 4 8 7 17 12 2 1930-31 .. 12 12 1 410 0* 17 2 1 •Estimate. Actual proceeds of national taxation and local rates in 1929-30 exceeded £26,000,000, or half a million a week; last year's total was slightly less; for the current year, the Budget estimates indicate a total of £27,000,000 or about £l7 17s per head. Local rates have for several years exceeded one-third of the Government taxation ; in the United Kingdom the ratio is substantially less than onefourth, with the result that while national taxation in 1930-31 amounted to £703,788,000, or £l6 6s 5d per head, local rates were estimated at £167,152,000, making a total charge of about £2O 4s. Jf Britain, with vast accumulated wealth, finds such a burden oppressive, New Zealand cannot be expected to carry £l7 or £lB a head in annual taxation representing on a national income of £120,000,000 at a liberal estimate a total charge averaging 4s 6d in the pound over income from all sources. It can scarcely be doubted that taxation in New Zealand has passed far beyond the taxable capacity of the country, and constitutes a burden which threatens to defeat any plan of rehabilitation.