HIGH WAGES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 97, 28 August 1942, Page 6

HIGH WAGES

"INEQUITABLE TAXATION''

"I line! Iliat there is a widespread feeling that the taxation -which company shareholders have to bear today is inequitable in that it is out of proportion to the rate ot tax paid by many individuals ayVio are drawing considerable incomes as the result of very high earnings by ay;iv of industrial wages," said Mr G. G. G* Watson, chairman ol' the Wellington ' Investment Trustee and Agency Co., in addressing shareholders. Mr Watson also said that the shareholders in that company, like those in other companies, were for tlic most part small investors with small incomes. They Avere, lie added, prepared willingly to accept heavy taxation for the purposes of national defencc. But they could not sec why their small investments in a company such as theirs should attract taxation which might absorb three-quarters of their incomc, while larger incomes by way of high wages should escape on a much lower basis. Similarly there was a widespread feeling that the present high taxation Avould be more Avillingly accepted if more information was available as to the purposes to which the taxation revenue Avas applied and as to the safeguards to ensure that, even in matters, of defence, adequate value: was obtained for the money expended, and adequate care taken to avoid unnecessary waste and extravagance.