BUDGET AND WEALTH

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 579, 6 August 1909, Page 5

BUDGET AND WEALTH

LICENSE DUTIES. THE ORY OF THE BREWER. WATNEY'S INCREASE £100,000 A YEAR. (fly TelesraDU.-l'fese Aee6cl*.t!ea.-OotJflihl.t Lbndoil, August 4. The cbnirman of Watney's Brewery Company, at . the shareholders' • meeting, stated that the increase of the license duties Undra the Finance Bill would' cause the Company to pay a hundred thousand pounds yearly in additional taxation. LiOENSE DUTIES.-ANNUAL VALUfi. The Finance Bill provides for the following rates of license duty:— Public-housss.-rM per cent; of aanbal Valne with minimums ranging from £b to £35, according to papulation. Bqer-houscs.—One-third of annual value with minimums. Hotels and Restaurants.—Where an hotel makes less than one-third of its total receipts by the sale of liquor, the duty shall be reduced to twice the amount of the proportionate duty. i.e., if receipts from liquor are one-sixth of the total the duty will be-one-third of the full dutyj if $, J; but ribvM less than one-tenth Of the full duty. The complaint of the London licensed houses is that assessment on the annual value pressed disproportionately on them, and they asked for a poundage rate. It was thought that this concession would bo extended in the Flharicb Bill, but when the Bill was published it was found that hotels, etc., wore left as before, though clubs wero taxed at 3d. in the' pound oil eales flf alcohol.

TAXATION OF CAPITAL UNSOUND. A DUSE'S VIEW. LdnGon, August 4.The Duke , of -Portland, addressing his tenants at Welbeok Abbey, Nottinghamshire, said a thousand pounds weekly was spent in Wages on his estate. This tfould neoefcsarily be largely diminished if tho Budget became law, thus disorganising the local labour market, Taxation upon capital, said tllo DUkej was fundamentally unsound flnaiice,. and would bring ruin upon agriculturists. AttAGIC DM CAPITAL. . Tile dohlit expressed by Sir Fefe Schuster, the eininfint battket, "whether it \vas aito* gothfer in tllo interests of the. Community to put tho whole of tha burden of new • taxation, or the greator part of it, on one class," is entertained by other great banking experts ill the City,of London. ■ . , Lord Alucuham, partner in Messrs. 'Antony Gibbs and Sons, in an interview' remarks: "The Budget, proposals as to ■ taxation will have the . tendency to drive capifal out of England. What appeafs fo be a deliberate attack" on capital must shake confidence, and nny stop which shakes-confidence reacts.prejudicially on business. It is undesirable, too, that the great majority of the people, who pay no taxes, and who at the same time have nearly all the representation, should be encouraged to put the whole burden of taxation Upon the few."

Against the Death Duties. Another leading City .bankoiy'a gentleman of great authority iii tho world of finance, said; "I feel especially strongly with regard j to tho proposed increase. in the death duties, I tdiich, if adopted, linist, I thinly lead .to the gradual diminution of capital; and'the revenue derived from that source, if the duties are on fed , high a scftle, must be, in' my opinion, a declining one after a number Df years; Death duties form a very Uncertain and variable BortrCs of revenue, and ,they should not in Iny judgment bo carried beyond,tho present limits, which aro already very high indeed. "My principal objection to a nigh income tax is that it diminishes tho reserve potter" of the nation in times" of' difficulty. But if Cauital is to bo further taxed I for oneiwould inhnitely prefer 'even a higher income tax than that now proposed to the . suggested increase of the death duties. It ivould he better for the individual and better for'the Stats.; Tho diminution of capital ctrased by heavy death duties, of course, affects the trade of the country, as it means tho | diminution of the working capital employed in trade." ' "Gentle to the Poor." Mr: Lloyd-Goof go (Chancellor of the Exohequor) sent the following message to a Wolvernauiptou Liberal meeting:— "I 'confidently appeal for the support of my friends in South Wolverhamplou to jny Budgot proposals. While they. are : gentle to poof they aro just to all.' .''..'.... . ..-.