The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1919. TAXATION RETURNS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16883, 2 August 1919, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1919. TAXATION RETURNS.

A course 'which, is an indispe asable preliminary to that revision of ta'xation- which is one of the chief needs of the dominion has been taken by the acting-Finance Minister (lion. Mr Myers) in. issuing, tor the first time, detailed analyses of the revenue produced hy principal taxes. His first return showed how the receipts froni land and income taxation have' increased from 21.15 per cent, of the total taxation revenue to 56.39 per cent., at the same time that indirect taxation has fallen from 66.64 per cent, of the whole .to 29.92. This weekj analyses have been issued of first ; the income tax, and then the customs receipts. The tables showing income tax returns were far too complex to be properly represented in our columns. They would be still more complete if they gave broad details of the receipts from incomes of less than£6so, a class which is not subdivided. As it is, the returns present an invaluable basis to the country of judging its taxation system, or want of system, and when they are continued in the future the result of every modification made will be clear! y shown. The outstanding feature of the income tax analysis is the comparatively light demand that lias been made on moderate in-' i comes- desniie the immense in-

crease of the total exaction undea war conditions. Tiie ngmes 101 iyj.7-.lti sliow that oi uie totuj amount oi .x-s,ii;,ouu raised ji: tliat year as ordinary ana wai income tax, considerably inort than half was iound by iUO taxpayers or companies. The suid taisen from, these taxpayers t»presented well over a third oi their total income. At the other end of the scale a group of mort than 26,UUU taxpayers/ with m comes not exceeding' £650, coul tributed only .£T7;J.,-±74. Uf tin total taxation on incomes for tii< year all but about one-sixteenth was paid by taxpayers with mi comes over £'9UU. Another poiui that deserves attention is that oi the total amount raised in income tax for the year a good deal more than half was paid by companies. JSonie of tliese may have been well able to pay it, or to pass it on, but it is obviously a defect tive law which taxes companies ii]; to the highest rate solely on the ag-greg-ate amount oi profits earned,, witjiout taking any account of the amount of capital invested or of business done, ihe whole system, of company taxa J tion needs to be revised to avoid the risk of crippling development, and to avoid taxing-, in effect., shareholders of small means ai the highest rate, when they belong to companies that cannoi pass on the taxation. The outstanding" feature of the Customs analysis is the small extent tu which indirect taxation has been raised during- the war period. The increase per head for Cus*j toms and excise in six years has been from i' 3 2s lOd to £3 6s—about five per cent. —and those charges include duties imposed for protection and not for revenue. It is plain that, if the masses of the people have fcl> Avar years as hard times, it is no\ because the Government has no; done its best to shield them fron the first charg-e on others, waj taxation. The Wellington "Even iug Post" draws a conclusion from the income tax analysis which is strengthened when the three sets of returns ' which the Minister has brought down are considered all together. ''The owners of incomes in excess o\ £IO,OOO and more/'* it states! "are actually myiug more than 50 per cent, of the aggregate income tax out of an aggregate income representing less than 2-: per cent, of the whole. A Gov ernment which is often accuser of being undemocratic can find one answer to the charge in these remarkable figures."