MODERATE INCOMES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22999, 30 September 1936, Page 10

MODERATE INCOMES

STEEPLY GRADUATED INCREASE A REPLY TO CRITICISM MINISTER DEFENDS NEW SCALE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Sept. 29. Opposition criticism that the Government’s taxation proposals involved. increases of approximately 60 per cent, in the tax payable on incomes between £3OO and £6OO and next to nothing in the case of incomes between £7OO and £IOOO was replied to by the Minister of Finance (Mr Nash) during the committee stages of the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill in the House of Representatives to-night.

Mr Nash said it had been stated by Opposition speakers that the increase in taxation on higher salaries was not in the same proportion as the increase on lower salaries. It should be noted, however, that exemption was granted for each child under the age of 18 years to the extent of £SO, and there was also j a £SO exemption for a wife. The exemption for a wife previously disappeared between £6OO and £BOO. There was now an absolute exemption for everyone of £2lO, and, in addition to that, there was an allowance of £SO for a wife or a housekeeper. Mr H. S. S. Kyle (Opposition, Riccarton): How many housekeepers are you allowed? The Minister: Only one. Mr Nash explained that a married man with a wife and two children with an income of £3OO, paid no tax. With an income of £4OO such a man previously paid £2 13s lOd. Now he would pay £3 Bs, an inciease of 14s 2d. The Minister said he did not think that would worry the taxpayer when he remembered that the old-age pensioners would receive £1 a week and later £1 2s 6d. With an income of £SOO he would pay £4 17s 6d more than last year, and with an income of £6OO he would pay £6 16s 3d more. “ The point is not what a man pays, but what he has left over after .he has paid his tax,” the Minister continued. He pointed out that a man with an assessable income of £3OO paid no tax. A man with an assessable income of £4OO, after paying his tax, had £396 12s left, and with an income of £6OO he had £577 12s left. A man with an income of £BOO would have £755 5s 4d left, with £ 1000 he would have £929 x2s left, and with £SOOO he would have £3970 left, so he had nothing to worry about. A man with an income of £SOOO paid £214 more than he paid last year, so he would not say that his tax had not been raised. If a man had an income of £ 10,000 he would pay practically £IOOO more, but he would still have more than £6OOO left, and the average man could manage on thatl