HIGH TAXATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 215, 11 August 1937, Page 8

HIGH TAXATION.

The Prime Minister has given an assurance that the Government is in earnest in the matter of reducing taxation. An investigation of the system has been made by an expert committee whose report is to be available for the Minister of Finance on his return to the Dominion shortly. The recordsum of £31,166,000, or approximately £2O per - head of population, was taken from the taxpayers last year to provide the financial requirements of the Government by this means. We are indeed a very heavily taxed people, ranking if not the highest then among the highest in the world. Per head of population we exceed the figures of Great Britain and Australia. The returns of public revenue recently published, covering the first quarter of this financial year, show a continued increase in the revenue from taxation. Customs receipts are advancing steadily, and there is not the slightest sign of any diminution. It may very well happen that by the end of March next a return of well over £10,000,000 will have been received. The sales tax, which takes a very important place in the scheme of taxation, is also mounting, and in the June quarter the Treasury received from this source £887,000. It is; an imposition upon the public which the Government promised to abolish, but finding something to take the place of so lucrative a tax must be proving rather difficult. It would not be surprising if the sales tax this year fell but little short of £4,000,000. In the quarter ended June 30 the taxpayers contributed directly and indirectly to the Treasury no less a sum than £5,697,000, apart altogether from the levies made under the unemployment legislation. The Prime Minister will not commit himself as to whether the sales tax or the income tax will be affected by any Government measure; he admits that revision of taxation must be faced as early as possible,” but it is not clear that there will be any material reduction which will lighten the burden upon industry and so create employment, and also upon others who deserve relief. A number of years have passed since the Royal Commission on taxation concluded that it was essential in the interest of the future prosperity of the Dominion that the weight of taxation should be reduced as rapidly as possible. Yet last year five more millions were taken from the community in this way. To meet conditions when revenues become less buoyant the load must be lightened without delay.