SUPER-TAX ON LAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20800, 20 August 1929, Page 10

SUPER-TAX ON LAND.

OPPOSITION BY FARMERS. A RESOLUTION OF PROTEST. (Pta United Press Association.) FEILDING, August 19. A lafgelyAttended meeting of farmers passed the following motion :■ —" Wo protest against the proposed taxation bocauses *l. A super tax starting at £12,500 unimproved Value Will discourage the most Useful producer in the, Country, namely, the man with a medium-sized farm, who produces the best produce and Stock- The super tax, if wanted at all, should Start at not less than £20,000 unimproved. “2. Land tax raised on land unencumbered with mortgage should apply only to the owner's equity aboVe the mortgage, otherwise the owner is being taxed on his debts. “3. Lowering the mortgage exemption to £6OOO will tend to keep settlers from taking up farming, whereas the Budget i> said to be extended to encourage settlement. “A If the Intention of the Government is to break Up large estates, why start at £12,600, which Is' quite , a medium-sited farm, and stop graduation at £30,0001 *6. We protest that the present proposals will, if enforced, produce much more than is required to make up the deficit. “ 8. To pay the income tax in a good Kar and land tax in a bad year is untr, and discourages thrift.” A TARANAKI PROTEST. (Pas United Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, August 10. A meeting of' the representatives of North Taranaki farming interests passed a resolution protesting against the proposed Increase in the land tax and especially against any decrease in the amount of the mortgage exemption. HARDSHIP ON FARMERS. RECONSIDERATION OP PROPOSALS URGED. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, August 19. At a special meeting of the Council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, held to consider the Government’s taxation proposals, the following resolutions were unanimously affirmed:— " Having considered the Budget proposals concerning additional land taxa* tlon this council desires to point out to the Government that these proposals do hot carry out the reasonable desire reported in the Prime Minister’s Budget speech—'to ensure that the large farming incomes will contribute to the national revenue in the same ratio as incomes from other occupations.’ We consider that the super-land tax will cause great hardship in demanding from many farmers amounts of land tax up to 20 times what would he their assessments under the income tax. No one has any escape from this hardship if the tax is levied as proposed from March 31, 1029. Even' if an owner is able to subdivide his property during the current year or if he has already done so, or if he is unable to sub-divide he is faced with an inequitable annual tax or a capital loss through forced realisation.” “ Mortgagees will become nervous at the probable high charges against the land which constitutes their securities and will again view land securities Unfavourably. The - reduced mortgage exemption will press hardly on the small landowners, who are heavily mortgaged, »nd whose incomes are small, as these taxes would constitute a capital levy on many farmers. We beg tu draw attention to the _ refusal of other Countries to impose capital levies and the danger to the position of New Zealand if capital levies of this kind were commenced, especially in normal taxation years, with the possibility of extension to other forma of capital. We therefore respectfully suggest reconsideration of these before the Finance Bill is brought down and permission to place before the Government numerous examples of the hardships we have named. We also suggest that reconsideration should take the form of the overhaul and strengthening if necessary of the Government’s present powers to force the sub-division of largo estates where that is considered desirable and feasible that the question of a general income tax on all incomes (farming incomes included) and the abolition of the land tax be considered; that this council regrets the necessity to increase rather than remove the existing primage duty and re-affirms its previous pronouncement that the Budget should be balanced by a reduction in public expenditure as against increasing taxation.”