LAND OR INCOME TAX?

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19137, 21 October 1927, Page 10

LAND OR INCOME TAX?

A VEXED QUESTION. DISCUSSED BY FARMERS. [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, October 20. The vexed question of whether inconic tux or land tax was the more equitable was again debated at tho meeting of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Fanners' Union. Mr F. S. Bowen (Uisborne) declared that thousands of fanners throughout the Dominion at the present time were making no income and were compelled to pay land tax out of principal and it was clear that this could not go on. in his own case his land tax was equivalent to a mortgage of £3tXX) at G cent. There was something radically wrong when a farmer who was making no profits off his holding was compelled to pay land tax out of principal. This was simply driving farmers off their farms. The average farmer, lie maintained, knew very little about tho finer points of taxation, and ho considered it was time that farmers formed a taxation association similar to those which existed to safeguard the interests of taxpayers in the cities. Tie thought thnt the Dominion executiveof the Farmers' Union might act as a taxation association to look after tho interests of the country taxpayers.

A Big Question. Mr W. W. Mulholland (Darßeld) considered the question was too big to be decided off hand and ho suggested that it should be referred to the provincial executives. When he had first joined the Union ho had been one of five who had favoured tho substitution of income tax for land tax. When the question had last come before tho Dominion Conference of the Union a vote had favoured the income tax, but the majority had been a very small one. There was considerable diversity ot opinion on tho subject. Mr J. Livingston (Dannevirkel considered that if a mrtn was making an income ho should be made to pay income tax. but there was something radically wrong when a farmer, who was making no income, was compelled to pay land tax out of principal. However, the question was a difficult one as, if a farmer was doing well he might have to pay out in income tax in one year as much as he would have to pay in land tax in several years. ■ Mr A. Dickie (Gore) reminded the meeting that the Taxation Commission had recommended the income tax, but had made a provision that if the revenue in any year of depression dropped below what was required it would be made up by a land tax. Eventually, on the motion of Mr Bowen, Messrs W. J. Poison, Currie, and J. Pow vere appointed a sub-com-mittee to interview the Land Tax Department and adiise the provincial executives of the rsulfc of the interview in order that the whole question could be discussed at the next Dominion conference. ,