LAND AND INCOME ASSESSMENT BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8534, 12 September 1907, Page 5

LAND AND INCOME ASSESSMENT BILL.

(By Telegraph—Parliamentary Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, September 11. The following are ths amendments to the Land and Income Assessment Bill recommended by the Public Accounts Committee, which reported to the House to-day:—The operation of clause 7, imposing an extra graduated land tax of 25 per cent, has been postponed for a year. The promise made in the Financial Statement to put homestead sites on an equal footing - with business premises has not been carried out owing to the difficulty of drafting a clause for the purpose. The provision in clause 10 making the lessee liable as if aiv owner, for his leasehold, as well as his freehold property, the purpose of assessing the rate of taxation has been amended by excluding from the operation of this provision leases where a leaseholder has not had any ownership in the land for the previous five years. An important amendment has been made in clause 16, which provides that a seller of land is deemed to be an owner for taxation purposes until a fourth of the purchase money has been paid. The one-fourth of the purchase money has, been altered to fifteen per cent. Another important amendment has' been made in the clause which provides that minerals, timber <tnd flax shall not be assessed for land tax whether ordinary or graduated, but the income a person derived from minerals, timber and flax should be taxed. The clause has been amended by cutting out timber and flax from its provisions. FJax remains as it is in the existing law. Its value is on to the unimproved value of land. Timber, it is now proposed, shall be dealt with in the same way, but only up to 50 per cent, of the value of standing timber. This is regarded as a big concession. An amendment of some interest h<*s been made in the clause dealing with minerals on land. The term "minerals" has been widened to include gravel, sand, and precious stones. Thus if a person derives an income from sand or gravel on his land that income will be liable to taxation. The Committee have also struck out, as being too inquisitorial, "a paragraph of clause 33 which enables the Commissioner to compel any person to give any information in his power about any other person's land income, property, or assessment. The general opinion of country members and the Opposition is that the Land Tax Bill, though not satisfactory, is a slight improvement upon the measure originally submitted. Mr W. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, however, holds that the extra graduated tax should not exceed 15 per cent. Mr G. Laurenson (Lyttelton), a professed land reformer, thinks that the Bill on the whole is fair and reasonable, but he would prefer to see the graduated tax start at £20,000. Mr A. W. Hogg (Masterton) would go further and support the starting of the tax at £IO,OOO. But he will support a proposal to make it £20,000, considering it hopeless to go below this. Mr J. T. M. Hornsby (Wairarara) says: "At first sight the amendments do not commend themselves. I cannot understand why the extra graduated tax of 25 per cent, has been postponed for a year. The Committee has apparently set itself the task of minimising the 'bursting up' effect of the tax, but, of course, the House has yet to deal with the whole subject. My own opinion i« that no measure will be acceptable "to the majority of members which does not make for the limitation of large estates. The Bill in. its present shape falls far short of expectations." Other country members I have spoken to contend that the Bill falls short of its professed object. In' the House, this afternoon, the Premier stated that the first of the four Land Biils to be dealt with would be the Land and Income Tax Bill, then the Land Bill proper, then the Land Endowment Bill, and finally the Native Lands Bill.