TAX TO BE REMITTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 742, 15 August 1929, Page 8

TAX TO BE REMITTED

THERE will be general approval of the Prime Minister’s plan to * find some way of remitting the taxation on the proceeds of the special trotting meetings to be held at Auckland and Christchurch in the interests of earthquake relief. Even if legislation is required, it should not be difficult to surmount such an obstacle. The Government has at hand every facility for passing the required legislation. Parliament is in session, each and every member knows the urgency of the need, and not one dissentient voice will be raised when the purely formal authorising Bill is presented to the House. In the circumstances it is strange that, instead of giving the impression of an unwarrantable rapacity, the Government did not announce at the start that it would forego its share. In convincing the Prime Minister of the justice of the case for remission, the Mayor of Auckland has done earthquake sufferers a real service. The extra amount by which they will benefit as a result of his persuasive representations may easily run into some hundreds of pounds. Normally the Government has four different methods of taxing the racegoer. First' there is the amusement tax ou gate-takings. Then there is the tax on investments, followed by the tax on dividends; an ingenious method by which the successful hacker is made to pay twice over. Lastly there is the five per cent, levy on stakes, which came in. like the primage duty, as a war measure, and seems likely to be just as permanent. In the case of the special trotting-meetings, the stake-money would naturally come from the totalisator investments, so practically the whole Government levy would come from the betting public. The aggregate of all these sources of tax may at one meeting amount to a very considerable sum. Since the trotting clubs which are organising the meetings stand to gain nothing for themselves, it is palpably unfair that the Government should demand its share. Possibly it had in mind the disquieting realisation that people are not now betting as much as formerly, and that racing taxation for the eleven months which ended last June was down nearly £20,000, compared with the corresponding period in 1927-28. Even so, it would be opportunism carried a little too far if calamities like earthquakes were turned to. the ultimate benefit of shrinking tax-receipts. The Prime Minister is now quite frank in recognising that to demand the tax would be entirely unreasonable, so people who attend the relief meetings may he confident that the money they spend will all be applied to the commendable purpose the promoters have in mind.