The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Sep-Oct 1922)

October 21, 1922. THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. 13 CRUX OF THE TAX PROBLEM. Big Amusement Caterer’s Views on the Trade Incubus. WHAT ALL SECTIONS OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY MUST OME very pertinent criticisms and sugyestio.s in regard to the Entertainments Tax are contained in an address on the subject by Mr. Perey Broadhead, President of the Provincial Entertainme its Proprietors’ and Managers’ Association. After recounting the result) of the various proposals put before the Chancellor, Mr. Broadhead discusses the prospect of havise the tax foisted on the entertainments industry as a permanent imposition, and justly condemns it as a fax on knowledve and necessary recreation. ‘* Remedies for the Mind.”’ “TI cannot help thinkiig,”” he proceeds, ** that the Labour Party were right when they passed a resolution in the Trades Congress condemning the Entertainments Tax, because it was of the nature of a tax upon knowledge. Why shou'd we wrestle with the Chancellor for a penny here or a sixpence there when we know that the entire tax is destructive to our business and at the same time robs the people of their adequate and aceustomed share of recreation and mental refreshment and, therefore, of that contented and equable state of being which means mental health and social serenity. Such mental health and the serene soeial outlook it inspires ought to mean much to the statesinan, and during the war it was realised that the theatres and cinemas played a most useful part in maintaining the morale of our fellow-countrvmen. But what was found truce iia national emergency is true for all time. Tf by taxation you reduce the power of mental recuperation among the masses, you deaden the life and soul of the nation. On the facade of the wrent library at Alexandria, the finest library of the ancient Eastern world, were inscribed the words, * Remedies for the Mind.’ Much more to-day for the millions engaged in our vast industrial system are remedies for the mind formed in the theatres and the kinemas. ‘“ Tf vou lower the tone and energies of the people by taxation, then it is high time to firid out whether national expenditure carnot be reduced or some other way found to raise the revenue required. Total abolition of the tax should now be our demand. ‘All sections of the industry of entertainment can unite in this movement. All injustice of preferential treatment will vanish with the removal of the tax. “We can by its repeal free ourselves from the incubus of Governmental inspection, and the nuisance of filling up forms will be mitigated, and especially will relief be obtained in the cessation of the weekly returns to the Customs and Excise Commissioners. The old, pre-war freedom will be restored and business be once more carried on without the eternal worry produced by the spectre of the tax collector in your box-office, The Crux of the Problem. ** Members of the 1922 depututions to the Customs and the Treasury will perhaps remember the first question. put in turn by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Robert Horne, and Sir Horace Hamilton of the Customs and Excise: Where does the public interest come in? That is the crux of the whole problem. They and their advisors refuse to consider aught ip any way that is of no interest to the general public. If we had replied clearly and frankly that we desired abolition, so that the public might obtain the whole benefit, as the abolition Google FACE. of the tax would mean redvetion in the admission fee to the public by the amount of the tax, then, I think, we should have been successful. : : Public Regrading Itself. * During the war the superabundance of moncy enabled the people to sit in their accustomed seats and pay the tax on top of the admission charge; now the scarcity of money has forced all amusement seekers a grade lower, to reduce expenses: thus the war-time patrons of the 2s. 6d., 26., Is. 6d. and Is. seats (tux included) have now dropped to the ls. 6d., Is., 9d. and 6d. seats, including tax. At present if there is £1,000 to be spent in a district on amusemente, £750 goes to the amusements and £250 to the Chancellor. If the tax was abolished and we regained our pre-war liberty, then the £1,0!0 would all go to the amusements in that district; that means, the present patrons of the 1s. pit-stalls (inclusive of tax) would go to the taxless Is. circle seat, and so on through all the grades of seats, arid we should perhaps also have a new school of patrons for our cheapest seats. ‘* Audiences have revraded themselves since the war, and would regrade themselves to the benefit of the industry if the tax were abolished. Tax Must Go to the Public. ‘* There is no proprietor or manager with any lengthy experience in dealing with the public admission prices but would know if there were one hundred places of amusement in one citv, and the war tax was abolished, and only one gave the public the full benefit of the tax abolition, the other 99 would have to follow suit, or make a ghastly failure of their establishment. ‘The Chancellor, the: House of Commons and the public wil! never agree to see the £11,000,000 or .£12,000,000 tax total transferred from the public purse to the pockets of indoor and outdoor entertainment proprictors. You, at present, do not have any of the tax money, nor could you with any hope pursue your policy of the last few campaigns and try to arrange for all or anv part of the tax to be retained in future by vou. Our oly hope is to convince the Chancellor and Members of Parliament that you mean to give them a square deal. An Iniquitous Tax on Turnover. ‘In conclusion, I have pointed out for some years the Fntertainments Tax is, in fact, a gross tax on turnover, and is additional to every other form of taxation borne by the nation. Is there any other industry in our Empire which could survive the imposition of a tax on its gross turnover equal to our average of 25 per cent? ‘«This iniquitous tax is not a tax on profits; it is on ‘ turnover,’ and what a howl there would be if thera were even a suggestion of 25 per cent. tax on turnover in any other industry, even of half the size and importance of ours, or even quarter of our capital value to the State. ‘‘T am sure it is only the refusal of the industry in the past to clearly face the public interest problem that has left us so long after the war struggling to carry this financial millstone around our necke.’’