THE SMALL FARMER’S INCOME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 188, 11 August 1939, Page 6

THE SMALL FARMER’S INCOME

a community where the tendency is for farm holdings to bceotti" smaller and smaller on the good land, it is reasonable to assume that in time such small farmers would have to be brought within the ambit, of the income tax. The proposal foreshadowed in the Budget to place farmers upon the same basis as other sect ions of thet community, cannot, therefore, be regarded as unjust. The exemption of the small farmer from income taxation, however, had a stimulating effect upon closer settlement. in which the community as a whole benefits where the small farm unit is an economically profitable one. While, then, the lifting of the exemption from income tax -which the smallholder has hitherto enjoyed, cannot be condemned as inequitable, seeing that a tax is paid only when profits are made, it must be recognised that Hie stimulus lo closer settlement which has hitherto operated will do so no longer. The policy of encouraging the increase in the number of small farmers hitherto pursued had many advantages. It proliteed a staple population with roots in the soil, it, gave to the man of small financial means an encouragement to become his own master, which in turn developed ami encouraged determined application to Ihe work of production ami the development of personal initiative. It was also recognised that the small farmer, to become successful, must work very long hours, and that in respect to his purchases he carries a heavy taxburden in the way of customs and other taxes. The exemption from income tax. while not amounting to a great deal in most cases, did nevertheless tend to even taxes up insofar as the small farmer was concerned. It is clear, however, that the Government does not desire to promote, the increase in the number of small farmers as a class, and it should therefore, in common honesty, cease front pretending to be the small farmer’s friend. With income tax and additional.petrol lax combined, the small farmer is finding his obvious burdens very much on the increase.