TAXING BACHELORS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1440, 26 August 1915, Page 2

TAXING BACHELORS.

Talking of war taxation, the Dominion throws out a suggestion which is worthy of serious consideration by the National Cabinet. Our contemporary says -“We wonder whether the National Ministry in its struggle with the problem of placing the war tax-

ation on the right shoulders has thought of a special tax on single men. The single man who is physically fit and who is at all concerned for the fate of his country will be exempted, lor of course he will beat the Iront or on the roll of those awaiting the opportunity to go. The fighting man should escape this tax. It is the single man who is unable to go and the single man who will not go save under compulsion who would have to pay such a, tax as we suggest. And why should not they pay it ? The average man who is unable to go, who is too old or who cannot pass the medical tests, would in most cases take pride in paying something extra towards the cost of the ( struggle in which he is unable to take a direct personal share. Hd would not begrudge such a pay? rnent so long as it was made quite clear that it was for the purposes of lire war—in fact, to help pay the wage of the nun who are fighting his battles abroad. As to the other class of single men, the physically fit. who will not volunteer for service, the shirkers, they deserve no consideration whatever. They may even begrudge the payment of a little extra towards the defence of their country, but they will meet with small sympathy anywhere. At the present time the income tax exemption extends to incomes up to a year. The Government might with advantage, for the purpose of war revenue, descend still lower in the scale in the case of single men, and impose a tax of sixpence in the pound on all incomes from ,£125 to ,£3OO. adding a corresponding increase to the existing rate of taxation on all such incomes over .£3OO. This would mean that a single man having an income of a year would pay an annual war tax thereon of £3 2s fid. This would not entail any very great sacrifice on his part, he being a single man and in most cases having only himself to care for, but spread over the whole of the single men remaining in the country would mean a fairly substantial sum for the Treasury. Indeed, one shilling in the £ would not be unreasonable. If ever there was a time when a tax on bachelors—that is to say, single men over 21 years of age —was justified, it is now. Here is an opportunity for Sir Joseph Ward to improve that rare thing—a popular tax.”