TAXATION POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1939, Page 9

TAXATION POLICY

LAND & INCOME SYSTEM COMPLETE REVISION THIS SEASON. TAKING EFFECT NEXT YEAR. (By Telegrapn—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An announcement that the whole system of land and income taxation would be revised in legislation to be introduced this session was made by the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in the House of Representatives yesterday during discussion on the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill. Mr Fraser’s announcement followed a sustained attack by Opposition speakers on the present land tax. The legislation, said Mr Fraser, would, he thought, accord with the ideas of the Opposition. “The owner of land these days pays all other taxes and pays land tax as well,” said Mr Polson (Opposition, Stratford). “He is really paying a tax on his factory. It is a class tax. It should not be allowed. It is the most objectionable form of tax, because it has to be paid, win or lose. It is a vicious victimisation of a class. DOUBLE TAXATION. The Leader ot the Opposition, Mr Hamilton, asked if there was a single good reason why farmers should pay land tax, specially now when all farmers were required to pay income tax. Farmers were not specially privileged, or specially able to afford to be subjected to double taxation. "This opens up a question on which the debate may go on till next year,” said Mr Fraser. It w T as intended, he said, to introduce a Land and Income Tax Amending Bill which would embody the ideas of the Opposition, and he suggested that the discussion should be postponed till then, when the whole of land and income taxation would pass in review. ' The new Act would not, of course, apply to this year’s taxation. Mr Polson: “Will the Bill come down this session?” Mr Fraser: “Yes.” Mr Wilkinson (Independent. Egmont): “Why will it not apply to this year?” Mr Fraser: “It will apply to this year’s income, which will be assessed for taxation next year." Beside land tax, said Mr Wilkinson, most farmers had to pay heavy local body rates. There had never been a land tax in England, nor in many other countries, and a tax which was levied oh the source of income was quite out of touch with modern developments. Nine-tenths of the tax was actually imposed on capital value, though it was supposed to be on unimproved value, said Mr .lull (Opposition, Waipawai. "Because this tax has got whiskers on it, it doesn’t mean that it is a reputable tax," he said.