MEAT BOARD WANTS CUT IN TAXES OF FARMERS

Grey River Argus, 11 August 1948, Page 4

MEAT BOARD WANTS CUT IN TAXES OF FARMERS

P.A. WELLINGTON, August 10 There is little doubt that heavy taxation is one of the loads contributing largely to the deterioration or lack or development of the lands, and their subequent withdrawal from production, according to the annual report of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board. The report states: “The average New Zealand farmer is far from being a moneyed person, and consequently most capital improvements to his farm have to be financed from income. When a farmer finds the income pool out of which he would draw funds is to be depleted by taxation, he is often discouraged to the point of ceasing to effect a desired improvement.” The report continues: “Some relaxation in our income tax laws, to allow as deductible expenditure for income tax purposes, moneys that are spent on cartain capital improvements to farms, would be welcomed. This would no doubt, benefit the individual farmer, but the far-sighted will realise that the loss in national income should eventually prove to be a permanent national gain." The veport says that the greatest advantage to the world and the primary producer would be stable economic conditions without “the mad dog chasing the tail complex of presentday living.” Instead of the folly of wages, costs and prices chasing each other upwards, there should be a period of reasonableness and understanding with the result that a man’s earnings would once aga:n have a stable value in the community.