Although not suggesting that the Palestine Government emulate the lightning methods of Kemalist Turkey in revising the old Turkish Law, many are of the opinion that this country should hhave been in a position by now to show a much more creditable record of progressive change in legislation and methods of taxation.
The Urban Property Tax is held to provide the most outstanding example of the evils of the old Turkish taxation and legislation system, which although swept away long ago in Turkey itself, still continues in many respects in Palestine.
The repeal in 1928 of the old Werko (Urban Property) Tax was greeted with particular relief, and the substitution of the new Act was considered to be a notable step forward in the overhauling of Palestine’s antiquated taxation system.
An important feature of the new law was that it provided for an immediate general re-assessment of all urban property and for similar periodic reassessments in the future, thus abolishing the former inequality of taxation as between the newer property, which paid on the basis of recent high values, and the older property, which paid according to valuations made 25 to 50 years ago by complaisant Turkish assessors.
Unfortunately, the administration of the new law has been so deficient that the expectations aroused will not materialize. It seems that the older class of property has been so rated by lenient valuers that, instead of paying more, it will pay even less. A situation has thus arisen in which older property, now for the first time supposed to be taxed at a reasonable rate, will yield to the Exchequer a much smaller amount of revenue than previously.
The appointment is urged of an independent Government Committee to reexamine assessments and to ascertain in how far they reflect reality of value and how far the liberality of valuers. What is specially deplored is that the past has been allowed such a hold on the present as to render reform much less comprehensive in scope and slower in pace than conditions would justify and the needs of development dictate.
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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.
