14.
222
"with many other places and the general situation is that
of a cash position. Under these circumstances the Colony
will easily adjust itself and when recovery comes, it will
come quickly."
Your Petitioners respectfully submit that the method now
adopted for the payment of their salaries amounts to the
imposition of an exceedingly heavy income tax on a single section
of the community.
They humbly submit that having regard to the Colony's large
surplus balance and to the obvious indications of the increasing
prosperity of the business community, it is not justifiable to
single out the public servants and to call upon them to make a
great sacrifice while the rest of the community very clearly
derives a substantial benefit from the low value of the "managed"
the lowness of which is the principal cause of the
temporary inability to make the revenue meet the expenditure.
dollar
14.
-
Your Petitioners venture to suggest that ample means lie
ready to hand for increasing the revenue and effecting sub-
stantial economies, and they crave leave to make the following
submissions in that behalf:-
mu
(a) That an income tax should be levied on all incomes,
including those of public servants, which exceed $5,000 per annum.
It is a notorious fact that there are considerable members
of wealthy Chinese residing in the Colony who contribute towards
its maintenance nothing but the insignificant amount of the rates
of the houses in which they live. The same may be said to apply
to many members of the European community.
It is recognized that evasion would be essayed, but the
collection of tax at source on the dividends of the many limited
companies carrying on business in the Colony and on the staffs of
the higher paid employees of businesses would alone be productive
of a substantial revenue. Similar difficulties in collection
have been experienced and largely surmounted in the case of
Estate Duty.
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Private notes are available after approval.