TAXATION YIELD

Southland Times, Issue 25314, 18 June 1935, Page 8

TAXATION YIELD

RECENT INCREASES NEED FOR REDUCTIONS ADMINISTRATION ECONOMIES Concern at the heavy increase in taxation during recent years was expressed at a meeting of the council or the Auckland Chamber of Commerce ion Thursday. It was decided to ask the i Government to give further attention Ito the matter with a view to effecting ■ a reduction in taxation through economies, states the New Zealand Herald. 1 Detailed recommendations from the i Associated Chambers of Commerce and . the importers’ section committee of the : Auckland' chamber set out various items of taxation in which it was COI \- ■ sidered reductions would be welcomed, i The sales tax was included, with a request for its abolition, but members of the* council thought that other direct forms of taxation should be reduced first. A table, setting out increases in general Government taxation under various heads during the past 10 years, was i placed before the council, showing that the total yield from taxation in 1934 was £21,471,000. which was nearly £5,000,000 higher than the figure for 1925, and £2,000,000 in excess of the total for the previous peak year, 1930. i It was pointed out that two new classes iof taxation, unemployment taxes and i sales -tax, accounted annually for £6,250,000. Table of Taxation. Following are comparative extracts from I the table for years ending March 31 :— 1925 1930 1934 £ £ £

i (Provisional returns give the total of taxation in the year ended March 31 last at £24,800,000, or about £l5 19/5 a head). The figures in detail showed that the returns from customs and excise reached their peak in 1930 and then fell substantially with the onset of the I depression, although there was a reI covery in 1934, the figure then being ] £354,000 in excess of that for the previous year. Land tax also reached its peak in 1930, but had declined steadily ever since. For income tax, the peak year was 1932, when the yield was £4,448,000, but this was tax levied on incomes for the year ended March 31, I 1931, when statutory reductions in sal- ' aries had not been made. Death duties, of course, are in the nature of a Government windfall, and hardly have a direct bearing on the incidence of taxation. With one or two minor excep- , tions, notably a recovery of £39,000 in 1934, returns from the totalisator tax have fallen almost continuously since 1926. Unemployment Levies. The most illuminating figures were those dealing with unemployment taxes, the annual yields since the imposition of this class of taxation being as follows:—1931, £281,000; 1932. £1,217,000; 1933, £4,100,000; 1934, £4,413,000. Sales tax yielded £38,000 during the part of the 1933 financial year in which it was in operation, and £1,848,000 in 1934. The provisional figure for the financial year just closed was £2,171,000. Mr A. G. Lunn pointed out that since the definite onset of the depression, reflected in the figures for 1932, there/had been an increase in taxa- • tion of over £4,000,000. Such an increase in times of economic difficulty was a very serious matter. The country had gone well beyond the limit to which taxation should reasonably go. The Sales Tax. Mr W. R. Fee referred to a clause in the recommendations from the Associated Chambers in which it was stated that sales tax should be replaced by an increase in other established sources of taxation. “That would be just like handing an open cheque to the Government,” he said, and added that, although the yield from income tax had fallen, its incidence on those required to pay it had become more and more oppressive in recent years. It was decided to point out to the Government, through the Associated Chambers, that the recommendations of the National Expenditure Commission that there should be a reduction in taxation through economies in administration, had not, from the figures quoted, been given effect to. On the contrary, taxation had increased to an alarming extent, and it was necessary to impress on the Government the need of giving immediate attention to the matter.

Customs and excise 8,187,000 9.517,000 7,140,000 Land 1.335.000 1,507.000 499.000 Income 3,386.000 3,534.000 2,961.000 Death duties 1.521,000 1,727.000 1,391.000 Totalisator 591,000 543,000 341.000 Unemployment — — 4.413.000 Sales tax —— —— 1,848.000 Other sources 1,530,000 2,643.000 2,878,000 i Totals 16,550,000 19,471.000 21.471,000 £ s d £ s d £ s d Per head of population 12 3 5 13 3 7 13 18 7 Total taxation, includ. local | rates 15 17 1 17 12 2 17 16 11