GRADUATED TAXES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1544, 13 September 1912, Page 5

GRADUATED TAXES.

THE GOVERNMENT qiLL, AMENDMENTS BY PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE. - Numerous amendments have-been made in tho Land and . Income Assessment Amendment Bill by tho Public Accounts .Committee, (^y ,wlucU.it was reported to tho - House of Representatives yestcrdnv afternoon. In its amended form the Bill wns referred: to the Lands' Committee, Tho principal amendment is the deletion of tho schedules determining the rales of ordinary and graduated land tax and the rates of income lax and also of the clnuses relating to them. New clauses have been inserted proposing the repeal of those in the, principal Act which, fix Iho rates of graduated land taxation and proposing that the rates shall bo "set forth by Acts which may from timo to timo bo passed." There is a new clause to exempt from the payment of graduated land tax any company whoso principal objects are of a manufacturing or mercantile nature and any company whoso principal object is the lending of money unless it owns or holds land other than its business premises. The determination of tho Commissioner of Taxes as to whether any company is to bo so exempted will bo final and conclusive. Tho proposals that tho income of a married woman shall bo joined with that of her husband for income tax purposes havo been struck out. Another new proposal relates to flai lands. It provides that when estimating tho unimproved value of land on which flax plants are growing tho Valuer-Gen-eral shall inclmlo the value of tho roots of tho plants, but not tho value of tho leaves growing from the roots. . This section is to como into operation on April 1, 1913. Tho deletion of tho'pro'visions relating to graduated-land tax were explained by the -Minister for Finance yesterday evening. Ho told a reporter that when tho Bill was before ■ tho House for second reading several members suggested that the scale should not be permanently fixed,, but decided by annual Acts a* has been dono in , the past. The Government has agreed to that course and a Lniitl Tax and Income Tax Bill will be brought down containing tho graduated land taxation proposals made in the Assessment Bill, and also tho scale for income taxation. The Taxing Bill will be introduced as soon ns tho Assessment Bill hns been dealt with.