AMAZING.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1917, Page 7

AMAZING.

1.0 the Editor. Sir, —T desire to sot forth elearljr tlio ir.eijiuiliiy mid unsoundness of the income tax. Brown's yearly income from rent or interest is seven hundred pounds. He pays £23 insurance premium, and from the nature of bis ease make* 110 excess profit. As special tax, at C.I in the £ on Mis income, less £3OO exemption, lie pays £lO, A ordinary tat, at •(id in the £ on his income, less £3OO exemption ami £i_3 premium, he pays £'J 7s Oil. As super tax he pays one third of list —£0 2s Oil. In all ;liis in.como tax is £22 10s. Smith's income from business, trading or farming, is £BSO. He 'has four children uud»r sixteen, ,ind the capital value of his premises or land is £IOOO. Deducting his standard income ( £2(io| from his assessable income j £350) he shows an excess profit of £HO. His duty on this at Os in the £ is £4O 10s. This special tnx ,at Od on income, less £,")00 exemption and excess duty, is -Is :)d. As ordinary tax on incomo, less exemption, duty, children's allowances, and 5 per cent. 011 capital value of land or premises, lie can pay nothing. If farming lie pays a land tax of £2 Is Bd. In all f'is income tax is £-12 Ms od. In Eng-. land at 5s in the £ and 110 exemption ■'Brown's tax would be £17 i .'i. Blest in New Zealand, lie pays less than lad in the £ as against Smith's 18s 4d. But, say you, Smith is free of ordinary income tax. He is simply because after the usual deductions are made there is nothing left to pay on. He is let oil' Od worth to lie Med for Dg worth of excess duty. The villain has made excessive profits in war time! Has he? Tire framer of this- Act declared in the House that he could not distinguish war profit from profit duo to other causes. Accordingly, he levied a tax 011 all excess piollts. In this case only Smith's standard income is exempt from tax. and it is £4'o less than the usual exemption. There is such devilish ingenuity about this extortion from .Smith that one is driven to believe Sir Joseph has missed his vocation. He should have been an artist in melodrama. Now, it is «, commonplace of economic science that small businesses do at times make great, even excessive profit. They must do so to survive the economic storms that so severely strain their resources. They are •to the firiu or trust as the duckpond is to the lake under meteorological conditions. The dairy farmer forms the largest class in a community mainly engaged in primary production and the most deserving and industrious. His incomo is. jointly earned by the whole family. More than any other, his business needs excess profit for development purposes, and to enable him to tide over aMd time. The season 11)15-10 was the most favorable lie has known, This is ono of the worst. He cannot compensate himself for this year's dearth, for much of last year's excess has been taken from iliim. The policv of the Finance Act, if persisted in, "will destroy the dairy farmer and small business man. While it deprives thesv of their sheet anchor,- its complexities arc a harbor of refuge for the great landholder or trust; Its graduations are a delusion. I will not say that all this was intended by the farniet of these several income taxesj but I will say these taxes reveal the muddle-headed finance of economic ignorance inspired by the traditions of glorified land agency. Yet will the pieaciier on the Tikorangi mount hid us turn the other elicek to be smitten on! Next December's election will show whether we have accepted his precept. As for friend Davie, with fide], ity passing the love of woman; then may lie see the political idol of his life-time—the man willo climbed into a niche of tinselly fame upon the back of labor—flung to the ground even as a wooden god. Nevertheless the human trust and loyalty of Davie shall remain after . , to be honored and respected even by such a Tory as, Sir, I am ROBERT J. BAKE WALL Waitm, 7/4/17., JVHY? To the Editor. Sir,—We read in your paper that Mr. So and So 'has been fined 10s and costs lor riding a bike, on the footpath with-; out a light, and Mr. fi.S. is fined £1 for driving a ear without a number on. Bu't a parent at Hurworth can spread thick--rn pox through the district without in-' lei'ference.—l am, etc., -V RESIDENT.