Super-Tax Proposal Declared Disastrous

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 10

Super-Tax Proposal Declared Disastrous

FARMERS’ DIFFICULTIES CITY PROPERTIES AFFECTED Press Association DUNEDIN, Today. ! A leading stock and station agent describes the Government’s super-tax proposals as disastrous, ! stating that if the new taxation becomes effective the quantity of i land thrown on the market wiii cause an all-round disaster. The actual position today, he said, is that the farmer’s prospect of making an income next year is so exceedingly slim that, even if the land is not offered for sale, and farmers attempted to carry on, the present land taxation will cause financial difficulties. The Government does not seem to have taken into consideration that the taxation will also apply to city properties bearing very high municipal rates. There are many firms with Dominion-wide ramifications whose properties run into huge figures. They will have to pay these heavily increased land taxes, causing further difficulties in financial matters. City propertied should be exempted from these heavy taxations, or there will be further increases in the cost of living, and everybody will feel the effect.

REDUCTION OF COSTS

ONLY HOPE FOR RELIEF BUSINESSMAN'S OPINION (Special to THE SUN) CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. In the reduction of Government expenditure Mr. \V. Machin, manager of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-opera-tive Association, sees the only hope of relief for tax-burdened New Zealanders. “To confess helplessness in the curtailment of public expenditure,” he said, “and to dig deeper into the pockets of the taxpayers for the required revenue, was a bad lead to everybody in the Dominion trying to make ends meet. It was to be hoped that the collective wisdom of Parliament would realise the cold facts of the present position, that Government expenditure had become too high and must be cut down. “The proposal to make a large farmer pay either income-tax or landtax, whichever is the larger, is not equitable,” said Mr. Machin. “British people have accepted the doctrine that it is fair to tax incomes and profits, but it can never be just to tax losses. This is what will happen in the case of many people who are farming large areas of land which they cannot subdivide and cannot sell at the present time. They are struggling to pay mortgage interest and have been borrowing for years to pay land-tax, sometimes high graduated land-tax, which has increased their annual losses. It seems to me that the time has arrived for the whole question of land-tax to be reconsidered.” “NO MORE NOR LESS” MANUFACTURERS’ VIEW WIPING OUT DEFICIT Press Association WELLINGTON, Friday. “The wiping out of a deficit of £ 5 1 7,252 and the making of provision for increases in expenditure in almost every department is a problem that demands very careful consideration,” said Mr. F. Campbell, of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association, when asked for his views on the Budget. “The proposals are no more than the Government could expect to collect and no less than they could safely ask for to carry on the business of the country. “The proposals to place Government trading concerns somewhat nearer, as far as taxation goes, to private concerns will be universally endorsed. I think the manufacturers of New Zealand wil). agree that the proposals are reasonable and should not interfere with the prosperity of New Zealand.”