FEDERAL FINANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19053, 18 September 1933, Page 9

FEDERAL FINANCE.

SURPLUS OF £3,500,000. REDUCTION OF TAXATION. RELIEF TO FARM MORTGAGORS. (Empire Press Union). CANBERRA September 7. The Federal Government has a surplus for the financial year 193233 of £3,500,000. It intends to apply the greater part of It to the reduction of taxation, which throughout Australia amounts to £l3 5s 9d per head. Direct and indirect taxes of both Commonwealth and State Governments are inoluded. Farmers and other rural producers, who throughout the depression have been able to hold to their properties, are nearing in numbers of cases mortgages which were contracted Nwhen money was dearer. Reductions have been agreed to in some instances, but the taxes on Incomes from property, including those from rural mortgages, have been exceptionally high, and a higher rate of interest is needed In order to make securities of the -kind yield a return comparable—considering relative risks—with that received from Government stock. A leading Australian Insurance company announced some time ago that if it were entirely set free from Federal taxes it would reduce its 5± and 5i per cent mortgages to about 4 per cent. Mr Lyons, Prime Minister, called the bank managements into conference this month with the object of ensuring that the tax reductions would give commensurate and immediate relief to the farm mortgagors. Other financial institutions will probably be interviewed also. It is reported that the banks undertook to pass on the benefit, but the exact nature of the concessions will not be announced until the Federal Treasurer delivers his Budget in the last week of September.