TAXATION ON LAND

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 81, 9 August 1929, Page 5

TAXATION ON LAND

WHO WILL BE AFFECTED? Press Association —Copyright. WELLINGTON, This Day. In the course of his remarks in the House to-night the Hon. El. A. Ransom said that the decrease in the maximum amount of mortgage would, it had been stated seriously, affect the poorer farmer. Under the old .system a farmer, with a property of the unimproved value of £SOOO and a mortgage of £4OOO (with mortgage exemption of £4000), would pay tax amounting to £3 19s 2d, and under the new system his position would he the same. The farmer with a property of the unimproved value of £IO,OOO and a mortgage of £9OOO would under the old system (receiving £9OOO exemption) still pay only £3 19s 2d, but under the new system bis taxation in every form would amount to £57 7s lid. Considering that the capital value of such a farm was probably £20,000, the Minister .did not think that amount was excessive. The farmer who had a property of unimproved value, of £l2000 (one just coming under the £l2, 500 exemption from income tix) and a mortgage of £II,OOO would have received exemption from income tax) and a mortgage of £II,OOO would have received omeption for £6OOO and would have paid a tax of £29 13s 9. Under the new scheme, with no exemption at all, he would have to pay £72 12s 6d, and even then would probably be more( comfortable than the farmer with a property valued at just over the £13,500 mark. It haid been ascertained that of 80.000, farmers in the Dominion only 2200 would he affected by the new mortgage exemption proposals.