TAXATION BILL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 9 October 1933, Page 6

TAXATION BILL

NO CHANCE OF REDUCTION. UNEMPLOYMENT BURDEN. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 9. To meet the requirements of the Land and Income Tax Department, Parliament will be asked on Tuesday to make its first business the passing of the annual measure fixing the rates of land and income tax. This will enable taxation assessments to be sent out to taxpayers. Though the latter can be reassured to the extent that no increases are contemplated, there is equal certainty that the Government cannot at present consider making any concessions. The Prime Minister briefly referred to taxation when speaking at the end of the Address-in-Reply debate. It had been suggested that New Zealand should follow the Australian precedent of making reductions. “There is nothing the Government would like to do more than to bring about a reduction in taxation,” commented Mr Forbes. “We recognise that high taxation creates an additional burden for the people of this country who have to carry on their businesses. But we have first to get the benefit of the improvements that have taken place, so that our finances will be in such a position that we will not have to wander into a deficit if that can be avoided.” Where the first signs of taxation relief will appear will he in connection with the emergency unemployment tax, now a shilling in the £, and levied, unlike the income tax, with no regard to ability to pay. If conditions favoured relief in this direction the Government would be prompt to make the concession, and it has carefully framed its legislation with a view to quick action when the time arrives. While land and income taxes are fixed annually by Parliament, the amount of the emergency unemployment tax may be varied without legislation, the governing clause on this subject in the Unemployment Amendment Act of 1932 staling : “The Governor-in-Council may at at any time by Order-in-Council, published in the Gazette, reduce the rate of the emergency unemployment charge .... if he is satisfied that the proceeds of such charge are more than sufficient to meet the reasonable requirements of the Unemplovment Fund.” A detailed statement of Unemployment Board finances is to be made shortly by Hon. A. Hamilton, and it may be predicted that it will contain no promise of immediate reduction in the wage tax, because the weekly expenditure at present is in excess of the average weekly receipts.