LAND AND INCOME TAX.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 66

LAND AND INCOME TAX.

LARGE INCREASE IN YIEOX ' WELLINGTON, January. 9. The Commissioner pf Taxes states thati the income tax this year will yield £300,000, an increase for the year of £22,134-. The land tax will amount to £550,000. This is £102,658 more than last year. The incTease is chiefly due to the new scale of graduated land tax. , (From Oto Own Cohrespondeht.) WELLINGTON, January 10. . Mr Peter Heyes,* Commissioner of Taxes, says there is a very substantial increase in the amount of tax to be collected this year.' Six years ago the land and income tax amounted "to only £364,000, and thia year it will "be nearly £850,000. In a. few years it should be a" million sterling,' 'and even now as a revenue producer this department stands second to tho Customs Department. The income tax this year will yield £300,000, which is £22,000 more than was colleoted last, year. " - The tendency to increase the tax on land* led to legislation last session that will largely swell the^-revenue. The tax for the present year will amount to over-fial£ a million, or an inorease for the year of no less than £102,600. Mr Heves explains that the rise is due mainly to- the graduated tax. Under oridnary .circumstances the tax" should increase with the~ improved "valuations', ( and this natural -increment is 'put 3owri at £15,000. The same cause operating upon the graduated- tax accounts for,", another* £8000 of the increase, and £64,000 • represents the benefit ".to the State exchequer conferred by "The, Land ' and Income Assessment Act, 1907." ' The absentee tax- is growing too. Absentees pay 50 per cent, more graduatedtax than owners who live in the Dominion. Their contributions in/ land tax only, amounted to £668 in 1892, but last /ear th.is -total had jumped up to £4327, and it will- be now largely increased through the operation of the new graduated taxation. , The amount expected to be realised from! the absentee landlord this year is £5700. - The total amount of graduated land tax payable this year is £190,000. The New. Zealand revenue from land and in? 00 ™ 0 tax is larger than that of New South . Wales, and Mr Heyes says we have /*aore capital and unimproved land ?alu« in New Zealand than in New South Wales.