WORLD'S HIGHEST TAXES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22796, 2 August 1937, Page 8

WORLD'S HIGHEST TAXES

Taxpayers were forced to find for Government spending last year the record sum of £31,160,000, or roughly about £2O per head of population, or £BO for a family of four. The rate of taxation is easily the highest in any country, exceeding that in Great Britain or Australia by several pounds per head. In this department New Zealand indubitably leads the world. To judge by the trend of revenue figures published since the current financial year opened on April 1, the Government intends that the Dominion shall maintain and even increase this melancholy lead. The Customs and sales tax returns published this morning show marked gains in every one of the four months elapsed. On present prospects it. would not be surprising to seo a yield of well over £10,000.000 from Customs this year and a figure approaching £4,000,000 from sales tax. Yet both fall into the class of indirect taxation which the Prime Minister is pledged to reduce. With sales tax Mr. Savage went further, promising its abolition. No hint of any'tax relief has lately escaped from Ministers, although taxpayers may still hope for some relief when the* Budget is brought down. It cannot be more than a forlorn hope, however, in view of the Government's spending policy, to finance which loans have to be brought in to supplement revenue. The question that troubles many people is how the Government's inflated programmes are to be financed when revenue becomes less buoyant. Nothing is being saved, tax demands are already levered up to the highest point, and no reserves left to fall back on.