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(h) Class VIII. Death Duties: A well-established Estate Duty exists in the Colony. We have considered its extension beyond the present limits and the possibility of an increase in the rates and of the introduction of Legacy and Succession duties.
(i) Class IX. Income Tax: We have considered at length the possibility of the introduction of an Income Tax or of various analogous Profits Taxes into the Colony.
Class X. Miscellaneous Revenue: We have considered whether increased revenue could be derived from public utilities-transport, electricity, gas, telephones, etc.-having due regard to the possibility of the public being involved in increased charges. We have also discussed the possibility of securing revenue from the introduction of other monopolies.
Chapter VI.
Possible Increases or New Sources of Taxation.
We wish to preface the particular conclusions arrived at in this chapter with certain general considerations which have guided our discussions :-
(a) We consider it inadvisable to add to the existing forms of taxation a multiplicity of new forms, which must be irritating and harmful to the freedom of trade and business which is so important to the Colony. Our recommendations accordingly advise either increases in the present forms of taxation or the introduction of new forms only when their advantages, whether by way of ease of collection, equity of incidence or probable yield, seemed to outweigh those general objections.
(b) We assume, from the very fact that a Committee has been appointed for this purpose, that the additional revenue, if and when it is needed, would be of substantial amount, and that we should accordingly direct our minds to indicating whence, if necessary, really substantial revenue could be obtained.
(c) We further assumed that the appointment of this Committee indicated an entirely proper desire to make plans in advance, not to wait for an actual immediate need to arise, and that we could, therefore, justifiably include in the scope of our consideration taxes whose imposition would require a preparatory period of some length and need not consider only those which could produce results at short notice.
A. Suggestions Considered and Rejected.
new
On the above basis we propose first to set out certain proposals for imposts or the increase of existing taxes which we have considered and rejected; then to list certain increases which we do recommend and which, although individually small, may aggregate to a considerable sum; and finally to list certain measures any one of which appears to us capable of producing the substantial revenue which we assume was in mind.
Customs Duties.
(a) The question of a general customs tariff was considered and rejected as being, in view of the peculiar economic and commercial situation of the Colony, impracticable. We also rejected any increase in the tobacco duties, the largest item in this group, which bear mainly on the poorer classes. Experiments have already been made with an ad valorem duty on cigarettes, but we do not believe that any practical benefit could be obtained from a further application of this principle to the liquor and tobacco duties generally. Nor do we recommend any attempt to include other semi-luxury articles of consumption (among which radio sets have been suggested) in the present
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