The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 6th., 1916. TAXATION AND DONATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1573, 6 July 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 6th., 1916. TAXATION AND DONATIONS.

THE N.Z. Herald says Ihn 1 the Minister fur Finance appears to ho ontifusotl as to what is moan): hy flio exemption from war pruliis lax of sains paid into (ho Patriotic Funds. If was oloarly explained flu 1 otlior night hy Air .leanings that Iho proposal is simply thai no suoh tax sliould he loviod on the donations aomally given. As the Government's proposal stands, taxpayers who had made £2,000 war profit and had given respectively £2OOO, £IOOO and nothing to the Patriotic .Funds would ho I ora lod thus; Prolit. Donation. Tax. Debit.

It will he seen from this that the generous giver is extort ioua I ely penalised, being subject to extraordinary war lax upon the very amount, of war prolit which he has voluntarily given lo a recognised national purpose approved hy the Government, and that the man who gave nothing is only subject; to the same war tax upon war profit which he pocketed. AVhat is proposed by the Herald is reasonable —nothing more than that war profits actually given to the officially approved Patriotic Funds should not he snpject: to this extraordinary war-tax. Under such an amended taxation scheme the result in the three typical cases would he;

It will be seen by any who wish to see that under the amended scheme all who made war pro (its would still he taxed 45 per cent, upon that part of their war protits which they had not given away. As a matter of fact, the sum involved is small to the Government, and very far from reaching the huge amount casually mentioned by Sir Joseph Ward. It is the principle which is great, livery thoughtful citizen, not to say every experienced statesman, has always realised that small injustices which touch the vital cords of the civic virtues have far-reaching results. The Government practically appealed to citizens to swell the Patriotic Funds, and now it proposes to levy the 45 per cent, war profits tax upon war profits thus donated, in addition to the common income tax which everybody is expected to pay. Those who have insisted that private generosity is undesirable and that the State should take all that is needed by taxation will tiud their strongest argument in this inequitable treatment of the generous. But what of the Government policy of encourag-

in" private giving, n policy which seems diametrically opposed to any destroying of; the great eivie virtues';'' Our Anekland contemporary suggests that Sir Joseph Ward did not, I'nll.v consider Hie incidence of I lie war prolils lax as il, applied to actual I'alriolic Knud donations, an.l fhat he has in (his mailer, as admittedly in (he mortgage tax propose.!, “gone fiirlher than he intended.’’

A ,C 2000 .C ' 2000 £. 000 ,C 2000 B 2000 1000 000 1900 C 2000 .Nil. 000 000

Profit. Donation. Tax. Debit. A 20(10 2000 .t Nil. 2000 B 2000 1000 450 1150 C 2000 Nil. 900 900