RACING AND TAXATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18823, 13 July 1923, Page 6

RACING AND TAXATION

NEARLY HALF A MILLION CONTRIBUTED BY RACING CLUBS. In the course of his address to the cw . ea^a nd Racing Conference at Wellington yesterday, the president, Sir Geo. Clifford, said . The past season will be memorable from the load of taxation under which racing clube have staggered. It has been quite disproportionate to that imposed upon other businesses or industries. The weight of it has been felt most actively by those cateing for country districts. In many such cases the undesirable course has necessarily been conceded of removing their race meetings to centres of population, and th is, in the effort to save their lives, depriving the bulk of the local residents of their annual holidays, A continuance of such deadly imposition would have driven many clubs out of existence, and have tended to concentrate racing to a few more favourably situated courses. I will append to this i eport the memorandum which has been submitted to the authorities showing in its astounding detail the extraordinary variety of the claims upon us which, together, make one crushing whole. The bare figures speak for themselves:—

Hnppily there is every prospect of such a revision of these exactions as will considerably relieve the pressure, and bring our burden more nearly in accord with that which all sections of the community are bound to accept.

£ s. d lotalisator Tax 137,644 16 7 Dividend Tax ... 246,704 18 2 lax on Stakes ... 43,411 0 6 Tax on Receipt’ , etc. 4.680 15 5 Amusement Tax 15,680 0 7 Land Tax 2,433 8 1 Income Tax ... 9,520 19 10 Total £460,075 19 2 Local Rates paid .. £6,252 6 4