INCOME TAX.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19144, 29 October 1927, Page 14

INCOME TAX.

1 ♦ r RELIEF WANTED. i _ I t COMMERCIAL MEN COMPLAIN. c The necessity for a reduction in the ' income tax was the subject of a dis--3 cussion at yesterday's session of the annual conference of the Associated ChamJ bers of Commerce of New Zealand. ' Mr H. P. Caughey (Auckland) moved the following remit: "This conference expresses its great disappointment "in s the failure of the Government to give relief to income-tax payers in its recent legislation. It notes that certain ' anomalies in graduation have been ad--1 justed, which the Government has stat- : ed were necessary before a general to- . dnction could be made. This adjust- , ment having been effected, the conference urges and confidently expects substantial relief in the next financial Bill. Mr Caughey said that the country had the utmost confidence in the Minister for Finance (the Hon. Mr Downie Stewart) but considered that a reduction in the income tax would have had a beneficial effect on trade generally. The fac.t that there had been a number of surpluses was a reason why such a reduction should be made. There should be a curtailment of services and expenditure should be of a productive character. Mr A. G. Lunn (Auckland) said that the present depression was due to a. great extent to excessive taxation. Had a reduction been made, he was certain that there would have been a great improvement in trade and the unemployment position. Mr M. A. Eliatt (president of the V; lmerstou North Chamber) wrote stating that at the last general election the Coates Government gave a pledge that there would be a decrease in land and income taxation, so that the recent increase in income tax amounting, it had been stated, to nearly £ooo,ooo, was a distinct breach of this pledge, and no amount of explaining away by the Minister for Finance could be accepted. It waß felt, that a move in the direction of economies in administration, rather than the raising of additional revenue out of the pockets of the people, would have been ,the correct course. At any rate nothing the "Coates Government had done was more likely to assist its downfall than the recent increase in income tax. The remit was adopted. ■ 1