INCOME RETURNS DUE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 162, 20 May 1940, Page 5

INCOME RETURNS DUE

PENALTY FOR NEGLECT Returns of income are required to be furnished by all companies and persons in business, or in Receipt of profits or gains derived from the use or occupation of all lands used for agricultural or pastoral purposes (irrespective of the value of such lands) or in receipt or gains derived from the extraction, removal, or sale of minerals, timber or flax; also by all persons in receipt of income from salary, wages, (including bonuses, overtime, allowances, <kc.), interest, rent, annuity, or other annual payment, or dividends or other profits from shares in companies where such income exceeds £200 per annum, whether the income from interest, rent, annuity, or dividends is derived from a source within New Zealand or beyond New Zealand. Returns are required annually from such persons notwithstanding that by reason of the special exemptions allowable by law they may not '>e liable for'tax. Form No. 3 which is now obtainable at all post offices, is the form to be utilised by all individual taxpayers, partnerships and estates. A special return form No. 3A is provided for farmers. Form No. 4 is to be utilised by companies. The return should be completed and forwarded to the Commissioner of Taxes, Wellington, C.3, on or before the Ist June. If for any reason the return cannot be furnished by the prescribed date application should be made for an extension lof time. Where returns are accepted compiled to a date subsequent to the 31st March, they should be furnished within two months of that date.

Any person required by law to furnish a return and neglecting to do so is liable on conviction, to a penalty not exceeding £100. Neglect to furnish returns at the prescribed time not only renders taxpayers liable to prosecution, but also results in many cases in an assessment of considerably more tax than would otherwise be payable. In the absence of a return the Department has power to make an assessment of an amount on which it is considered tax ought to be levied. The acceptance of the estimated assessment does not, however, absolve the taxpayer from the duty of furnishing a return. Reports of prosecutions for failure to make returns in the past should be taken as a warning, and all persons liable to furnish returns arc therefore advised in their own interests to forward such returns on or before the Ist June.