EVASION OF TAXES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27397, 9 July 1954, Page 12

EVASION OF TAXES

CHECKS EXTENDED BY DEPARTMENT WORK OF EXAMINERS AND INSPECTORS (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 8. The total additional taxation collected last year because of investigations by examiners of the Inland Revenue Department was £287,073, says the annual report of the department, tabled in the House of Representatives today. Tax discrepancies (income tax and social security charge) revealed by investigations of taxpayers’ affairs totalled £1*607,920 last financial year, as compared with £1,351,061 for the previous year. In 1951-52 the amount was £1,291,206. The detection of evasion of taxes on income continued to be a major departmental activity, says the report. Endeavours to overtake the backlog of inspection work which built up during the war and immediate post-war period were as successful as could be expected under the handicap of a numerically inadequate staff of inspectors. . .. Steps have been taken to extend the scope of the investigation work by training suitably qualified clerical officers as examiners, says the report.

These officers examine taxpayers’ returns, and where there are unsatisfactory features an investigation is made, either by an income tax inspector in the more involved cases or by the examiner himself in suitable cases. “The recent publicity given to the undertaking that where a voluntary disclosure qf evasion is made the taxpayer may avoid prosecution and have his penal tax limited to interest on the amount of tax underpaid has already had beneficial results to the revenue,” says the report.

MOTOR INDUSTRY IN N.Z. MR LAKE REVIEWS GROWTH RELATION TO NATIONAL PROSPERITY (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 8. After saying that the motor industry played an important part in New Zealand’s economy, Mr H. R. Lake (Government, Lyttelton) told the House of Representatives this evening that, unless the country was prosperous, it would not be able to afford the industry. Recalling events of 1898, Mr Lake said that the McLean Motor-car Act stated that no car should travel at a greater speed than 12 miles an hour, and that a motor-vehicle was one which was so constructed that no smoke or visible vapour was emitted. As recently as 1924, the motor-car was a luxury, he said, but today in many cases it was a necessity. In 1925, there were 123,000 vehicles of all types on the roads. Today there were 530,000. In that period, the price of a good family car had approximately doubled, but the general wholesale price index had almost trebled. New Zealand had become very carminded and ranked second to the United States in the number of persons to a vehicle, said Mr Lake. Good roads reduced operating costs, and the Government, by setting up the Reading Committee, had shown it appreciated the position. Now there was a national roading authority which had made provision for £15,000,000 to be spent on the roads every year.

WAITAKI HIGH SCHOOLS’ BOARD (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) ’ WELLINGTON, July 8. Reconstitution of the board of governors of Waitaki Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools is provided for in the Waitaki High Schools Amendment Bill, introduced in the House of Representatives today. The bill Increases the number of parents’ representatives from two to four. It states that a member appointed by the Oamaru Borough Council is substituted for the Mayor of Oamaru, and a member appointed by the Waitaki County Council for the chairman of the county.