Crew angered by tax on risk bonus

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 4

Crew angered by tax on risk bonus

PA Wellington New Zealand crewmembers of a petrol tanker sailing in the Gulf are angry that special risk bonuses paid in “war zones” have been deemed taxable by the Government.

In a letter to the union delegate of the MV Kuaka, a New Zealandmanned tanker which recently took 25,000 tonnes of petrol through the Gulf, the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said there was no section of the Income Tax Act which exempted the “war zone bonus” from tax.

“I regret that my reply cannot be more favourable,” he said. Mr Lange was respond-

ing to a letter from five of the Kuaka’s crew members who said they had been in the war zone for 15 days and were "most displeased” to find that their bonus was taxed. “After all, it was not they (the Inland Revenue Department) that put their lives in jeopardy, and we were enabling the earning of overseas income for New Zealand,” the letter said. British crews were paid a tax-free bonus, effectively 200 per cent of salary, “in recognition of risks taken,” they said. “Shipping has been attacked in the vicinity and apparently Sirri has been flattened once’,” the letter said. “Our cargoes cannot be ‘inerted’ and petrol is

not the most comforting cargo to carry during hostilities.”

An Iraqi missile recently hit a Dutch tug carrying eight New Zealanders when it was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Iran to help the construction of new oil terminals.

Two of the New Zealanders were hurt and an Australian killed in the attack.

The Senior Opposition Whip, Mr Don McKinnon, said yesterday that the bonus should be worth “slightly more” than normal wages. “I think they should have reasonable consideration concerning the sheer upset of going into the war zone,” he said.