BURDEN OF TAXES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1938, Page 5

BURDEN OF TAXES

ANOMALIES CRITICISED

BY MR H. G. DICKIE. LEAD ON SMALL INCOMES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Anomalies in the present taxation law were pointed ’ out by Mr H. ’G. Dickie ('Opposition, Patea), in the debate on' the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill, in the House of Representatives last niglit. Taxation, he said, had steadily increased under the present Government, despite the pre-election statement of the Prime Minister that it could not possibly be increased any more. At one time, said Mr Dickie, it was possible to deduct legal expenses for drawing up mortgages from a farmer’s income return, but the Minister of Finance had apparently stopped that exemption .with a view to obtaining a little more taxation. If a farmer had to renew his mortgage he had to pay taxation on the cost of renewal, and that was not fair. Income tax had been increased by the present Government from 7d to Is 8d in the pound. A single man with an income of £5OO now paid an extra £l3 6s 8d in income tax, whereas the single man on a £lOOO a year paid an extra £l2 5s 2d. The great harvest had been obtained from the man on £3OO, £4OO and £5OO a year. “The land tax is unfair and inequitable, particularly in the case of rural land,” said Mr Dickie. “A man is taxed whether he makes a profit or a loss. Taxation should be on an income ■basis. Many countries, including America, have .no such thing as land tax, for they recognise it is inequitable in every way. The way the present Government has extorted taxation out of every section of the community is very little to its credit. Perhaps it could be defended if reserves were being built up against a possible future recession of prices.”