EVASION OF TAX

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1930, Page 2

EVASION OF TAX

HEAVY PINES IMPOSED. WELLINGTON, Aug. 1. Three charges of wilfully making falpo returns in relation to the income of his wife and himself for the years ending March 31st. 1928-27-28, were made against John Henry Garrett an.d he. was fined £IOO on the first charge', £SO on the second, and £2 on the third. Defendant and his wife were proprietors of the Astor House restaurant.

A Departmental officer said that an investigation from 1925 showed an understatement of income to the extent of £2515, and an evasion of tax to the amount of £221. The income returned over four years was £9306, whereas the true income was £11,821. The deficiency of income due to wilful evasion was £2072, and the tax underpaid due to wilful evasion was £203. The method used was that defendant each week paid a certain proportion of the takings into a separate account and when he handed hie books to an accountant ho did not disclose a separate account and so a proportion of the income was suppressed each year. On four charges of failing to furnish a return Lionel Waddell was firred £SO on the first and £2 on each of the others. Defendant was ptated to ibe employed by a firm of electrical contractors at £520 a year until early last year. His existence was not known to the Department and he had (never made a return. In the past ten years he had earned at the rate of £505 a year. The tax payaible amounted to about £SO.

William Rowlands, who had been in, business on his own account an a drain-layer since 1925, and had earned more than £3OO a year, was fined £25 on flic first charge and £2 on each of two others.