A TAXATION ANOMALY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11752, 1 February 1918, Page 4

A TAXATION ANOMALY.

The Duiiedin "Siar" draws attention to a taxation anomaly which places co-operative dairy companies on :i. belter footing than other industrial companies. Jt states that the Consolidated Statutes of 1918 contain aclause in ihe Land and Income Tax .Vet which exempts from assessment for Income Tax the 1 revenue of cooperative companies dealing "in products from milk. Section 48 of the Act of If) IG retains this obnoxious exemption by providing that the income of a "co-operative cheese factory or butter factory company" shall bo free from charge. Now, if this exemption were but part of a general policy of freeing the income of incorporated companies from taxation and of solo reliance upon the taxation of the incomes of individual persons, we could understand it. The separate taxation of companies is attended with many inequalities. There are multitudes of strong egrounds for abandoning it entirely in favour of the taxation of dividends merely as elements in the incomes of the individuals who receive them. But whether thin course* be expedient or not, i certainly all companies should be put upon the- Riimo footing. The co-op-erative dairy factories in this country have reached a high degree of prosperity. They are the recipients of a substantial amount of war profit. Why should they escape tax on their net earnings while other industrial and commercial companies, cooperative or otherwise, have to pay?