The Daily News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16. 1920. NEW DEATH DUTIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16. 1920. NEW DEATH DUTIES.

The pressure of public opiaioc and the need for increasing the revenue of the country have resulted in the re-casting of the estate, succession and gift duties, the Bill for that purpose being laid before the House on Thursday. The Premier's view that the new duties should not prove unreasonable will probably be generally endorsed, and it is likely there will be a large body of opinion that any amendment in this direction should have produced, not £200,000 or £250,000, but half

a million. The adoption of the sliding-scale principle is the only fitting method of dealing (with these duties, but it is difficult to Conjecture on what basis the amended duties have been fixed. Why, for instance, should a wife have to pay on a higher scale than a husband? The exemption amount in the case of a wife has been reduced from £20,000 to £IO,OOO, but she pays 4 per cent, in respect of all money over £20,000, yet the husband pays 3 per cent, for all over £2500. The exemption in the case of a child lias been reduced from £SOOO to £IOOO, and the amount rises to 4 per cent, after reaching £20,000. The raising of the exemption iu other cases from £2OO to £SOO is quite justified. The British scale, it may be stated, begins at £lOl to £SOO at one per cent, and steadily rises to 40 per cent, for sums above £2,000,000, but the Dominion maximum is reached at £145,000, on which 20 per ceat. is charged, that rate corresponding with the British £250,000. Mr. Massey's schedule could be improved with advantage, and advantage might be taken to impose a, super-dutv in the case of bachelors or widowers without children. Apparently very little consideration has been given to the framing of these new duties, with the result that, in some respects they are inequitable, while the amount t<J be yielded is not sufficient. At the same time, tfee Government can be congratulated on taking a step, that is long overdue, for the deatli duties have not been reviewed since before 1914.