TAX ON SALARY & WAGES

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1931, Page 3

TAX ON SALARY & WAGES

POSITION OF DOMESTICS. EMPLOYEES IN INSTITUTION a. The Emergency Unemployment Charge of threepence in each complete pound of salary or wages earned (or one penny in each 6s 8d) .is payable by (almost every recipient of payment for services. All remuneration whether in cash or kind, is liable for the charge, and the latter has to be valued. 'Jn the case of an allowance in respect of service, the line of distinction of a taxable allowance is whether it is in the nature of a reimbursement or simply for .service not requiring any expenditure to earn it. If the whole of the allowance is for the personal benelit of the recipient the whole is taxable. Where the value of board and lodging, or board only, or allowances, is included in the salary or wage the tax is payable on such value plus the actual wage or salary paid. In the cases where free board and lodging are given an industrial worker the value of the board and lodging is to be assessed at £1 per week ; if meals only are provided their value is to be reckoned at Is each. Such workers include hotel employees.

AMENDMENT. The Unemployment Act, 1931, exempts from the operation of the tax women and girls in private domestic service, and the Unemployment Board has decided that such service meaiu domestic service in private dwellings only. The fact that one or two boarders are kept will not in itself take an establishment out ot the “privatt dwelling” class, but ’I the keeping ot board era is the main purpose of the establishment, it ceases to be a “private . dwelling,” and the emergency unemployment charge must be reduced from the wages of domestic servants employed therein. Board and lodging supplied to feinal* domestics employed in school hostels, orphanages, hospitals, and charitable institutions (if not subject to an award should be valued at 17s 6d per week. Board and residence suppl ed to a teacher or professional employee must be valued at a reasonable figure, dep riding on circumstances, with a minimum of £1 per week. House allowances and the fair rental value of tree houses are also subject to this tax. FARM-WORKERS’ SHARE.

The tax is payable on payments to share-milkers where such represent remuneration for labour only. Where th* relationship between the farmers and the share-milker is that ot a partnership, payments made by the farmer to the share-milker are not taxable as salary or wages, but both farmer and sharemilker will be liable .with respect to U" tax on income other than salary or wages.

In the case of married couples employed on farms, where the wile is engaged in domestic duties, the tax mast be pair! on half ot the joint remuneration (inclusive of the value -of board and, or, lodging).

Where payments to drovers include an allowance for the use of horses and dogs, the tax is. to be assessed on a sum of 15s per day, or two-thirds ol the total payment, whichever is the greater.