EVASION OF INCOME TAX

Evening Star, Issue 19805, 2 March 1928, Page 6

EVASION OF INCOME TAX

BIG SUMS INVOLVED MELBOURNE MEN PROSECUTED. Prew Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, March 2. (Received March 2, at 12.15 p.m.) An action has commenced in the High Court in respect to the shortage of income fax paid by three brothers named Abrahams. The Taxation Commissioner claimed that one brother, Alfred, in a return in respect of income for the year ended Juno 30, 1927, understated the amount of his income, which he alleged to bo £3,2.14, whereas it was £35,358. fn 1925 he stated that his income was £3,506, whereas it was £38,054. The Commissioner claimed that the evasions of lax amounted to £10,221 in 1924, £9,543 in 1925, and in 1926 it was £7,792. lie claimed the penalty of £SOO provided by law, and treble the amount in each ease, which amounted to £83,168. The brother Louis owed £76,631. Mr Justice Starke remarked that the penalties on the pleadings would amount to £266,000, to which had to be added £IOO,OOO which the three of them would have to pay in tax. One of the brothers, Emanuel, had stolon out of the country, and could not he traced. The defendants admitted the truth of the Commissioner’s case, and had paid a sum of £500,000 in satisfaction.

Mr Justice Starke expressed surprise that the Crown had compromised with the taxpayers. He considered that the pleadings and the defence alike disclosed a conspiracy, and that there should have been a prosecution under the Crimes Act. Judgment was reserved.

[On warrants issued on an iulormation sworn by Mr R. J. Birch, senior investigating ollicer of the Taxation Department, on August 15, 1927, eighteen constables and twenty taxation officials conducted raids on the Small Arms Company, Elizabeth street, the city residences of the company’s solicitors, and those of other persons believed to he associated with the company. Safe-opening exports, with oxy-acetylene apparatus, accompanied the party, and in two instances their services were required to open safes and strong rooms. Eight motor car loads of documents were seized in the raids, and these are being examined by a special staff of taxation officers. The declaration of Mr Birch was to the effect that he had been Investigating the company’s taxation returns, and bo believed that many of them were fraudulent, and that an attempt was being made to defraud the Commonwealth.]