LET TERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3054, 16 April 1917, Page 6

LET TERS TO THE EDITOR

INCOME TAX EVASIONS

THE DEPARTMENTS ATTITUDE.

Sir,—As we have now reached the end of the financial year 1916-17, I suppose we can assume that those persons, who have received no demand irom the Commissioner of Taxes for income tax, super tax, and excess profits tax for the year ending March 31, 1916, have esoaped these taxes for that particular period. . . ••■ If suph is the case, I venture to remark that there must be" something very haphazard in the way the taxing business is run. I don't know if it is want of proper organisation by the Tax Department, or whether, the people concerned are not candid in furnishing their returns for taxing purposes—probably the latter. However, if it is the same throughout the Dominion as" it is in the district in which I reside, there must be a 'considerable evasion of these taxes by-members'of the farming community, if not by others. In the first place, I should like to know what steps are taken by the Taxes Department to ascertain that all likely taxpayers furnish a statement of their transactions, or inco.we. ■ A friend of mine in another part of the country told me a few months ago' that he had never yel sent in a return, and has never had" to pay anything. It is possible he has since been discovered. He farms between five and six lwndrcd acres of Government lease land,' and I know his net income ,for the year is not far short of four figures. One would think that the Tax Department would make use of oounty council rolls to make certain that every' farmer of that standing, should at least j furnish an annual return of his income. j Now, lam writing this letter in the hope that some.system will be devised to make every man in the community pay his fair share of this war taxation. 1 repeatedly hear such remarks as this passed by farmers with whom I come in contact: "Ihave had to pay such-and-such an amount, but what I object to is that :so-and-so, who is . doing equally as well, or is in a larger way than I am, has escaped altogether. '.; Take my own case.. I farm betiveen four and five hundred acres. My war taxes amounted to £38 odd, which I am only too proud to be 'able to pay. My next door neighbour, with ; 200 acres more land than I have; clipping thirty bales of wool to my twenty, and breeding.and selling a correspondingly larger, quantity of stock, escapes'altogether. One would naturally expect this man ■ to provide at least as much revenue as I do. Another neighbour, .within a radius of a mile, with a farm of similar size, has h"ad to pay over a hundred pounds.. Another neighbour on 350 acres has" paid,. roughly, £4ff, His next door neighbour, on 500 odd' acres of exactly similar country, pays nothing.

Within five miles I can name'several well-to-do farmers, who up to the present have escaped scot freei One man remarked to me some months ago, when the tax demands began, to come in, that, as long as they did not let him in for more than'£loo he would not complain. Here was a man apparently quite willing to pay £100, bnt so far has not been asked to pay one.shilling, These instances are in one Government settlement; The settlers are all on lease-in-perpetuity tenure, and all doing a similar class of farming on good land. It seems strange there should be these anomalies. Very few of the men who do pay complain of what they have to pay; but the fact that• numbers 'of their neighbours contribute nothing is much' commented on. If the same system obtains throughout the. Dominion, what a huge/amount of revenue is being lost.

Trusting, that some abler pen than mine will take this matter up, and thanking' you for your valuable snace, —I am, etc., ■ EQUITY.

• [The questions raised in this letter were brought under the notice of the Commissioner of Taxes. It appears that'the Department is aware that a very large number of men who should have paid income tax have not sent in their income, and so have avoided the payment of taxes up till the present,' but these farmers are not likely to escape altogether. The Department has Keen collecting information about them for. some time, but because the staff is below,, strength, it has not been possible to. make use of this information at once. When, the present busy period is over it is hoped that all the men who have been evading payment of their .income tax^s-will be discovered. When they are discovered they will-have to pay-treble .the amount that would otherwise have been demanded of them, this being the penalty which the Department has power under the Statute to impose. If, however, the Commissioner is satisfied that the default on the part of a particular man is due to ignorance, or inadvertenco, he may at his own discretion excuse the payment of the penal rate of treble the ordinary tax, and accept, the amount of the tax plus 10 per cent, additional, this being the penalty imposed in all cases for late payment. In order to discover the defaulters the Department is using not only the county rate rolls; but the returns of dairy factories, and other sources of information it has. It is within the knowledge of the Department that a number of farmers escaped the payment of income tax last year, but it does not follow that they have escaped altogether. The tax dueffor last year as well as the tax recently payablo will certainly, be demanded, and if the conimisisoner is convinced that the evasion has % been wilful, with intent to defraud thei revenue, he may demand payment of treble the amount of the taxes actually due. In its .search for these defaulters the Department will he glad to have the assistance of other settlers .who knQW of such*cases.] '•• ■■