SALES TAX ON TRAMS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1931, Page 11

SALES TAX ON TRAMS

SURPRISE IN MELBOURNE. The Australian Taxation Commissioner has called upon the Melbourne Tramways Board to pay a sales tax of 6 per cent, on a sale value fixed for trams, made by the board at its workshops and, according to the taxation authorities, sold by the board to itself for use in its own system. The cost of building a tram of the modern type is about £3OOO. To this the taxation authorities require an addition of 20 per cent, to obtain the sale value, on which the tax is calculated. At 6 per cent, the tax to be paid is thus £216 on each tram. The chairman of the Tramways Board says that the board has protested against the imposition of the tax. Until it is removed , the construction of new cars'' : kt :; ihe ‘workshop's, he Bays, will oease. ~ few- >?-$ bStoC Hd'