| The Sales Tax
must go!

JN. the field of taxation, more

than in any other, big busi-
ness and its . lory-Liberal page
boys in the legislature have suc-
ceeded in imposing on ‘the peo-
ple of British Columbia a regres-
sive series of laws unbroken by
a single progressive act. At the
legislative session last spring the
most viciously unfair of all acts
was passed, the falsely titled So-
cial Security and Municipal Aid
Tax—the unpopular “Sales Tax.”

In face of strong popular op-
position and open revolt of some
of its own supporters, the Coali-
‘tion foisted on British Colum-
bians this “rob the poor to save
the rich” tax, cunningly mislabel-
ling it to hide its underlying aim
of shifting the costs of govern-
ment on to those least able to pay.

From the time it was first pro-
posed and particularly during the
six months it has been in effect,
the Sales Tax has created more
widespread and vigorous opposi-
ti than any other single act of

this government. That is why

mobilization of the broadest pos-

sible movement to compel repeal
of this infamous “nuisance” tax,
is the central issue before the

people of British Columbia, as

the February 8 opening of the
legislature approaches.

The Sales Tax proposal grew
out of a taxation“ crisis’ created

over the years by the failure of —

successive big’ business govern-
ments to tax the fabulously weal-
thy corporations exploiting the
province's rich natural resources.

In the last fifteen years there
have been five government com-
missions on the tax problem —
an inquiry every three years: on
the average. Big business, with
the aid of its legislative mouth-
pieces, in its 'greedy desire to ¢S-
Cape paying a fair share of tax-
ation, has sought on the one hand
to shift the dead weight of tax-
ation’ on to the purchasing power
of the people and the small home

owners. And on. the other hand, »

it has striven to exploit dissatis-
faction over the intolerable tax
burden to block urgently needed
reforms, and to try to cut back
existing social legislation and ed-
ucational standards.

Evidence of how big business
dictates the policies of the Tory-
‘Liberal Coalition is shown by the
fact that the Sales Tax was in-
troduced in direct opposition ‘to

the considered findings of the
Goldenberg Commission appoint-

\
>)

cS

@ This is how Fraser Wilson,

noted cartoonist, sees Fin-
ance Minister Herbert (“Act
‘of God”) Anscomb, main pro-
ponent of the Sales Tax, which
was described by Sam Guth-
rie, MLA, as “pilfering pen-
“nies from the pockets of the
poor people.”

ed by the government itself, and
paid for by the taxpayers.

The Goldenberg Report (P. 56)

states:

“J am of the opinion that the
imposition ef a retail sales tax
in order to reduce the burden
of real estate would benefit only
persons with large real estate
holdings: the small home oOwn-
er, the wage earner, the farm-
er, and the small business man
would lose considerably more

, than they could gain.”

To put the sales tax across to
the public the Coalition had to
cal in to play the Hitler tech-
nique of the “big lie”. And what

was the" big lie?” That 12 mil-

lion dollars was needed*to meet
increased social service costs, and
that the only “way this money
could be raised was through a
three percent Sales Tax on the
public. ‘

No one will disagree that we
need extended social
put it is entirely false to say, as
the Coalition does, that the only
source of revenue is through a
tax on the pay cheques of the
working people who cannot now
stretch their earnings to cover
inflated living costs.

Services,

®

The Coalition government has
studiously evaded responsibility in
tackling the taxation problem.
Highly important recommenda-
tions arising from its own expen-
sive commission inquiries have
not been implemented, and the
basic need of democratic taxation
reform has been ignored.

The Sales Tax, condemned by

every authority on: public finance
since Adam Smith, as a partic-
ularly vicious way of raising rey-
enue, bears heaviest on the poor,
on the old age pensioners, and
on those with a family. It is an
iniquitious and inflationary
scheme which works decidedly in
favor of big business, since it is
collected exclusively in the re-
tail field, which is not used by the
corporations or big business inter-
ests.

The sales tax can well be called
a “double-squeeze tax’ because
the higher goes the cost of living,
the more the tax adds to the cost
of living.

And what extra social services
has the Coalition announced? A
compulsory hospital plan, which
every citizen pays for, and which
actually saves the government
money.

The real story behind the sales
tax is that if present social secur-

. ity expenditures can be paid for

out of this “nuisance” tax, then
an equal amount of money be-
comes available for other pur-
poses, such as reforestation with-
out the imposition of adequate
forest taxes. Rightful taxation of
big business can continue to be
ignored.

“Everybody should pay his

_fair share,” declared Finance Min-

ister Herbert Anscomb, as he sly-
ly moved to gather in the approxi-
mate 54c a head from 25,000-odd
old age pensioners, the widowed
mothers, and low income groups
who, he charged, had “escaped
paying” till then.

e

Twelve million dollars are need-
ed for social service. No one will
dispute that, except to place the
amount far higher. Where else

can it be raised then?

There are a number of sources
readily ‘available. For example,
until 1946 corporations ‘in this
province paid from $40 to $45 mil-
lion a year in excess profits tax-
es. At January 1, 1948, these taxes
were discontinued.

It is true that the excess profits
tax was a Dominion tax, but it
is also true that $40 to $45 million,
in addition to the highest profits
in all history, were thereby turn-
ed over to the big corporations
when they could have provided
an excellent source of revenue for
the province and municipalities.

The Consolidated Mining and
Smelting Company of Canada in
1948 declared a net profit of

By NIGEL MORGAN

$25 1/3 millions, a substantial in-
That year this
only $718,307 in
1947 its profits
percent to over

crease over 1945.
corporation paid
mineral tax. In
boomed over *50
$37 million. Why, the increase in
net profits from 1946 to 1947 of
this one company alone would
have more than covered the gov-

-ernment needs.

The H. R. MacMillan Export
Company which holds a privileged
position in the forest products
industry, announced a net profit
of $2 1/3 million in 1946. This
company and. its subsidiaries
paid only $102,577.14 in stumpage
and royalties to the province. In
1947 its profits were ‘more than
doubled, and when $7 million in
net profit is computed, it was af-
ter $7 million in excess profits
tax had been paid to the govern-
ment, which no longer has to be
paid.

If companies can pay such tax-
es and still show such large net
profits, why doesn’t the Coalition
increase its stumpage tax and its
mineral tax for the benefit of the
public whose resources produce
those fabulous incomes?

The Coalition has deliberately
shut its eyes — and is trying to
hoodwink the public—into over-
looking. the ready source of in-
come from taxing the big corpor-
ations.

“Rob-the-poor to spare-the-rich”
is the motto of the Coalition, most
of whose members are directors,

shareholders, or “faithful ser-

~

vants” of the big interests who
put across this iniquitious tax,
so that demands for any exten-
sion of social or educational ser-
vices could be met with threats
to increase the rate of the sales
tax or its coverage.

The sales tax must ,be repealed.
The trade unions, farmers’, pen-
sioners’ organizations, the LPP,
CCF, Young Liberals, New Vets
(Canadian Legion), Junior Board
of Trade, Retail Merchants, Vic-
toria Builders’ Exchange, and
numerous small business associa-
tions have vigorously protested
the Coalition’s new tax.

Government intimate
that a slight reduction may be
forthcoming. But that, at best,
would be only a tactical move by
the Coalition, necessitated by pub-
lic pressure and dictated by the
political considerations of an elec-
tion year, which would leave the
tax—later to be increased again.

sources

What ‘is needed is a mighty
movement of the people of Brit-
ish Columbia and their organiz-
ations, a vigorous campaign to
sweep the Sales Tax away. And
by placing a just and equitable
tax on the big corporations and
those who grow rich, it is Poss-
ible this year to abolish the sales
British Columbians must
make their legislature realize that
the vast majority of the people
who earn less than $3,000 a year
elected them to represent their

tax.

_ interests, not the interests of the

three percent in the top income
brackets. They must be told the
Sales Tax must go!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 7, 1949 — PAGE 5