MR LANG’S RAIDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 14 January 1931, Page 7

MR LANG’S RAIDS

BLEEDING THE TAXPAYER NO MESH LIMIT IN THE NET WIIAT NEW SOUTH WALES PAYS Although the Lang Government has been in office only a few months it lias been extremely busy in its efforts to find money urgently needed, wrote the Sydney correspondent cf the “Melbourne Herald” on 22nd December.

It has passed legislation which increases the Bavin Unemployment Relief Tax of 3d in the £1 on wages and salaries to Is in the £l. The shilling tax will operate from Ist January, and is to bo deducted weekly by the employer on all wages of £2 or over. At present the tax starts at 30s. The Is tax is to operate for six months. The measure also provides that the increased tax will apply to other incomes, and the exemption has been raised from £BO, as at present, to £IOO. Another provision is for the taxing of foreign companies in respect of earnings in New South Wales. As the increased rate of the tax is for six months only, and the tax on income other than wages has not been collected, it will be averaged over the year at 7£d in the £l, and collected in six instalments. Actually the new tax over a period of a year amounts to an extra 4J,d. The Bavin Government 3d wage tax was estimated to yield about £2,500,000, and the extra 9d for the period the Is tax will be in operation is expected to yield about £3,000,000 more.

BETTING TAX OPERATION The A.J.O. summer meeting at Randwick will see the beginning of the Government’s 10 per cent tax on winning bets. Racing men have received the proposal with bitterness, and the objections liavo not been lessened by the fact that the amount taxed will include the amount staked by the punter. Estimates of the anticipated proceeds of this tax vary. There has been talk of a yield of £40,000 a week, but in some quarters this figure is not accepted, the argument being advanced that the tax will result in a diminution of racecourse betting. Mr Lang himself expects to get £2,000,000 a year from the tax.

The Government is considering the question of licensing and collecting revenue from starting price bookmakers if it is found that the winning bets tax drives betting from the course to the starting price shops. There was a suggestion that in the new year special taxation should be imposed oil higher incomes. Some time ago there was talk of a. compulsory loan of 2s in the £1 on all incomes, but this, of course, could not be imposed because of the Loan Council agreement. It has since been suggested that a tax of this kind should ho imposed as a straight-out supertax, but no decision on the matter has yet been reached.