The question of the crushing burden of old arrears of taxation which is lying heavy on the Jewish merchant and shopkeeping classes of Poland, without any possibility of their ever being able to pay it off, was raised by Deputy Rothenstreich, as the spokesman of the Club of Jewish Deputies at the meeting of the Finance Commission of the Seym, during the consideration of the Government bill empowering the Ministry of Finance to five certain relief to taxpayers in respect of old arrears of taxation.
As far back as December 1930, shortly after the election of the present Seym, the Club of Jewish Deputies introduced a motion to give relief to tax-payers in arrears, Deputy Rothenstreich said, and only now, 17 months after, had the Government found it advisable to put this question on the agenda of the Finance Commission.
The Club of Jewish Deputies, as the representative of the Jewish population, he went on, had long ago demonstrated that it is impossible for the taxpayer to pay off all the accumulated arrears of taxation because of the severe economic crisis in the country, which is threatening to deprive him of all opportunity of earning his bare livelihood, let alone pay these huge sums in arrears to the State.
The present Government bill, he complained, is formulated every vaguely and it is difficult to tell what it is aiming at. We do not know from the bill, he said, what relief will be given to the taxpayer and how it will benefit him. We are simply asked to give certain powers to the Ministry of Finance. How these powers will be used we are not told.
The Vice-President of Finance, M. Zawodski, said that the Government bill was intended only to give the Ministry power to prolong the period for the payment go tax arrears, but it must not be interpreted as an amnesty.
The Rapporteur on the bill, Deputy Ulrich, of the Government Party, also said that the proposal of the Club of Jewish Deputies, to wipe out the old arrears of taxation, could not be entertained by the Government.
On being put to the vote, Deputy Rothenstreich’s resolution was lost, and the Government bill was accepted by the Commission.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
