The Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. MONDAY. MARCH 15, 1920. THE INCOME TAX.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12012, 15 March 1920, Page 4

The Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. MONDAY. MARCH 15, 1920. THE INCOME TAX.

THE fact that the increase of wages and salaries is having the effect of increasing the number of those liable to pay income tax, which is now levied on all incomes above £3OO a year, is causing a movement in favour of making the exemption higher. In our opinion it would be much more preferable to reduce the exemption to £l5O and one reason for this belief is that the payment of direct taxation makes the payer take greater interest in the disposition of the money realised and induces him to watch carefully any tendency to Government extravagance or misuse of the public funds. Moreover it provokes consideration of the question whether taxation in that particular form should be levied at all, when there are other and more equitable means available, and this may lead to abolition of inequitable taxation. The income tax device was first applied in Britain as a war tax, but as it is easy of collection it has been maintained and its application has been extended throughout the British Dominions—indeed Ossa has been piled on Pelion in the shape of a war-tax on income-tax. it is not defensible in equity, for it is in the nature of the levy of the freebooter who robs the rich merely because they are wealthy, and is utterly defiant of the maxim that the State should levy on the people only in proportion to the service it renders them. It is particularly inequitable in a State that already levies high Customs duties, because it makes the earners of taxable income pay taxes twice over. And, as if tin's were not enough tax-oppression in what is supposed to be a free country, this form of tax has also recently been applied to income from land. If we are to have reform in this respect we must first remodel our Customs duties by making them revenms-pro-ducing, lowering the rate to increase the volume of dutiable imports, and allowing no exemptions whatever. By this method all would be made to contribute to the Treasury, and the single man, for instance, would not escape payment of his due share. Some years ago the cost of living in this country was very much lower than it is at present, and there was then neither income tax nor land tax, the State relying mainly on revenue from Customs duties. Since then, however, the land and income taxes have enormously increased, and instead of the indirect taxation yielding more than they do, these direct taxes take from the pockets of the few over two millions more. Our vicious fiscal system has had much to do with the Increased cost of living, and it is one of the things that urgently calls for reform.