TAXATION PROBLEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16423, 6 May 1924, Page 6

TAXATION PROBLEMS.

FARMERS AND CITY MEN GIVE EVIDENCE.

(Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, last night

At to-dlay’s sitting of the Taxation Commission, Mr J. D. Hall, president of the North •Canterbury Farmers’ Union, said his theory was that the land tax, which was inequitable, should be altered. Tliere should be a flat rate and an allowance for mortgages. A farmer should be taxedl on his income, not on his debts. In England a farmer was taxed on his income. Dealing with indirect taxation, Mr Hall said the amount paid by farmers for land tax was small compared with the taxes which he paid indirectly and which were the main reasons for the increased cost of production on farms. That cost was more than double what it was before the war.

Mr W. H. Nicholson, secretary of the Canterbury Sheepowners’ Union, said that Ids executive wished him to specially stress the point that, the land tax, as at present levied, was a capital tax pnre and simple, and it was imposed on one section of the community only, and they urged that if the capital tax was" found to be unavoidable in order to provide means for meeting the expenses of the Government, all capital, however employed, should be made to bear its share equally with that used in working the land for production, so that some measure of relief ndght be given to primary producers. Mr B. H. Whitcombe, managing director of Whitcombe and Tombs, said the graduated land tax levied on industrial companies fell unjustly on them, as it hindered the expansion of industry and the full number of hands woirid not be employed. Mr Charles Ogilvie, managing director of Beath and Co., drapers, suggested that the profits passed to reserve in a business such as theirs should be treated on a lower scale of income tax, with a view of conserving capital. The ultimate gain would be steady dividends and steady income tax, so that both shareholders and the Government would even tu’ally reap the benefit.