SALES TAX INCREASE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19377, 15 July 1937, Page 5

SALES TAX INCREASE

EXCEPTIONALLY BUOYANT RECORD MAY RETURNS peak year indicated (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. The improvement in the internal business conditions in New Zealand is fully reflected in the steadily increasing buoyancy of the sales tax yield. The collections during May established the record of £309,796, Although yields in the mid-year months are not usually the highest, the May yield was £14,714 higher than in April and £76,303 above that for May of 1936. For several months past the” returns from this tax have been exceptionally buoyant, the figures for each of the first five months of this year being considerably in advance of the corresponding months of last year.

This trend is indicative of the higher volume of sales of commodities. Certain necessities are exempted from the tax and it is reasonable to expect that, with an increase in purchasing power, a higher proportion of the total sales would comprise taxable commodities, including luxury lines. .

The following table compares the collections for the first five months of the past two years:—

As an instance of the increasing value of the tax to the consolidated fund the collections for the first two months of the current financial year totalled £604,878, an increase of £136,894, or almost 30 per cent over the amount collected in the corresponding period of the previous year. If the rate of increase is maintained the yield for the full financial year should easily exceed last yetrr’s total of £3,050,985, the highest since the tax was imposed in February of 1933.

193G 1937 January . . £233,103 £294,431 February . . £186,875 £194,624 March . £206,101 £296,637 April . £234,491 £295,082 May .. . . £233,493 £309,796