STUDY AND DISCUSSION SOCIETY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16339, 13 May 1927, Page 11

STUDY AND DISCUSSION SOCIETY

PRINCIPLES OP TAXATION A very interesting address was given' last evening at a meeting of the Study and Discussion Society by the president, Mr. F. K. Tucker. The lecturer said that taxation must in the nature of things be co-existent with civilisation. Despotic monarchies, which were the rule until comparatively recently, levied taxes in a. capricious, haphazard way, from those subjects whom they thought likeliest to be able to pay. Punishments for non-payment were rigorous in the extreme. In mediaeval times taxation was regarded as synonymous with confiscation and extortion, and was invariably resisted when a monarch rvas weak.

With the growth of the Parliamentary system of government it came to he gradually recognised that the right the levy taxes belonged to Parliament and not to kings. Since the reign of William 111 this principle had come to be taken for granted by all classes in the land, and none nowadays ever dreamed of so much as questioning the right, of the State to tax its subjects. Taxation, he said, forms by far the largest part of revenue of nearly all States in the world. Four principles were laid down by Adam Smith on the subject, and these are accepted by nil economists(l) All subjects are bound to support the State out of income earned under its protection; (2) tax must be levied at times when it is most likely to be convenient to pay tlipm; (3) taxes must be regular and fixed, not arbitrary and capricious; (4) they must not take out and keep out of the pockets of the people a much greater sum than ultimately benefits the State revenue, as this tends to hamper trade and also encourages smuggling and evasion. Taxation is defined as that part of a State’s revenue which is derived from direct charges levied on its subjects. Taxation did not really include rents, though some economists argue that it does, nor does it- include charges fixed by the State for services such as postage, railways, and other trading departments, unless the State intended to make an unduo profit out of these services to the community. The various direct and indirect taxes at present levied in Now Zealand were then outlined* their merits and demerits being given in each case. Comparisons were made with other countries’ taxation systems, and references were also made to certain obsolete taxes, such ns door and window taxes, furniture taxes, personal effects taxes, long since obsolete in England, 'but still current in France.

To be fair, the incidence of taxation, said the speaker, must fall on the shoulders of everyone in the community, and not press heavily on to one class in particular. The fact that such tm immense variety of taxes was at present levied in this country, coupled with the fact that indirect and even direct taxes were passed on from person to person indefinitely, tended to make the burden of taxation fall equally on each member of the community. Tbfc speaker referred to the single-tax theory as being definitely a one-class tax. In the discussion which followed, the merits an.d possible injustices of the single-tax system were given by speakers, and the question of rates on ecclesiastical properties was brought tip, the speaker stating that 'he saw no reason whatever for cliufch sites being exempt from rates and taxes, and for churches being charged at only half rates for land and income tax purposes. poses._