THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1924. A TAXATION COMMISSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19136, 2 April 1924, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1924. A TAXATION COMMISSION.

The announcement that tho Government is taking tho necessary steps for the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the present system of land and income taxation is certainly fraught with interest. It must be generally agreed that it is desirable that an adjustment should be effected in respect of tue proportion of taxation which the landowner may, in one way or another, be equitably expected to contribute. There is no absolute need of a Royal Commission to this end. In too many instances the creation of Commissions means the adoption of the line of least resistance on the part of tho Government which is expected to formulate a policy on the questions that are thus remitted to bodies vested with no executive responsibility. It is to be remembered that it is upon tho Government that the responsibility rests for proposals for altering the system of taxation. It has already before it the recommendations that were prepared by the Taxation Committee a few years ago. Moreover, within the past few weeks there has been a lively ventilation of the arguments adducible in opposition to the system of taxation which the Government has considered to he expedient. A weak point in the system has been specifically indicated. Especially when the burden of taxation is heavy, nothing disturbs the equanimity of the average taxpayer as a cheerful contributor to tho national exchequer more than a belief that the incidence is- more favourable to one section of the community than to another. It is impossible, however, to ignore the existence in the community of a feeling that, through the abolition of the income tax in tho case of landowners, pastoralists are escaping that share of taxation which, proportionately to their prosperity, they should bear. With the land tax as the one channel of his contribution to the public revenues the farmer is nowadays regarded as uncommonly well situated in the immunity vouchsafed to the high profits accruing to him for certain of his commodities. On the other hand it can hardly be disputed that, during recent lean years when the farmers were required to pay income tax as well as land tax, the burden imposed upon them was excessive. Many of them had, in fact, to draw upon their capital for the payment of the taxation that was levied on them, and the uncollected taxes amounted to a considerable sum. Judgment respecting what is the fairest and most productive tax in the case of the landowner is, however, certainly not to bo arrived at satisfactorily through the consideration of results attending brief periods either of depression or of unusual values. Our own suggestion has been that, if practicable, landowners should be assessed ou land valuation, or on income, whichever would provide the larger yield to the State. It is in any case clear that an amendment of the taxation system is desirable in order that anomalies discernible in its present operation may be removed. The experience of the

present year has made that apparent. It is safe to say that there is no prosperous pastoralist in the country who will not acknowledge, if he be perfectly candid, that, while his wool is bringing the prices recorded at recent sales, he is paying less than his due to the State. Even although its appointment seems somewhat superfluous a Royal Commission entrusted with the task ot reporting upon the whole subject should none the less be able to render good service in assisting the Government to sound conclusions and in satisfying public opinion. It is reasonable to hope that the result of the investigation that will be/ conducted will be the submission to the Government and to the country of useful recommendations respecting the steps that should be taken for the elimination of patent anomalies in the taxation system.