INCIDENCE OF INCOME TAX

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20532, 25 September 1936, Page 8

INCIDENCE OF INCOME TAX

GAP IN PROPOSALS MR POLSON ANALYSES FIGURES (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 24. The indidence of the Government’s income tax proposals was criticised by Mr W. J. Polson (Nat., Stratford) during the second reading debate on the taxation legislation in the House of Representatives to-day. The schedule of income tax, he said, required a good deal of explanation. An analysis of the figures revealed that taxation on incomes between £3OO and £6OO would be increased by 60 per cent, whereas in the case of incomes between £7OO and £lOOO, there would be practically no increase at all. “I am not complaining of income tax, as I believe it is the only fair basis of taxation,” said Mr Polson, “but why leave a patch from £7OO to £lOOO, or £l'2oo, with no increase at all. All I can say is that it is open to a considerable amount of misinterpretation throughout the country.” The Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. W. E. Parry): What do you mean by that? Mr Polson: I am leaving it to the imagination of the Honourable Minister, if he has any. He can take it home and sleep on it if he likes. Mr Parry: We expect a man to be a man, and say what he thinks. “There are the figures,” Mr Polson said, “and the Honourable Minister can get up and explain them, and justify them, if he can. It is not my job to explain the vagaries of the Government’s taxation. Taxation is being increased for the small struggling man, but those on higher incomes are to escape.” The Minister of Railways (Hon. D. G. Sullivan): Do you believe the interpretation you are putting on the figures? Mr Polson: I am stating facts, and the public can place their own interpretation on the figures.