UNFAIR IN INCIDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 33, 9 February 1933, Page 12

UNFAIR IN INCIDENCE

"The Press" says:— "If the Government's taxation proposals announced last evening by the Minister of Mnance arouse dismay and possibly more active sentimefits of disapproval' throughout the' Country, it will not be because of the size of the burden they impose; it will be because the new taxes are with few .exceptions unfair in their incidence, burdensome on industry, • and opposed to every canon of sound taxation.-it can be admitted that ■ there is a psychology of taxation and that the economic unsoundness of some indirect taxes is compensated for by the fact that to the public generally they appear less oppressive than direct; imposts, but when Mr. Coates proposes to. raise „ 2,540,000 without a single increase in direct taxation it is time to recall first principles. It is difficult; to avoid the conclusion that the Government's taxation proposals would be fairer politically, safer, less likely to slow down commercial and industrial activity, and more certain in their yield had both the sales tax and the petrol tax been substantially lighter and the difference made up by increases in such direct levies as incomo tax and death duties. The only disadvantage of income tax as compared with other forms of taxation is that it tends to limit; the- accumulation of capital and consequently-to hinder industrial development in New Zealand. This objection is hardly valid, seeing that the bank deposits are already, unhealthily large and over-capitalisation is all too frequent."