INCOME TAX

Hokitika Guardian, 14 May 1932, Page 3

INCOME TAX

RETURNS DUE JUNE Ist,

PENALTY FOR NEGLECT.

Furnishing a return of income is an annual duty imposed by law on all companies and persons in business, whether for the whole or part of the iii'neomie year and* irrespective of whether a profit or a loiss was made; also by .all persons in receipt of income frotm salary, wage®, intejrigjdt, rent, annuity or other annual payment, where such income in conjunction with income from free-of tax Government securities, company debentures issued free of tax, and from dividends or other profits from shares in companies trading in New Zealand exceeds £2OO per annum. Returns are required annually from such persons notwithstanding that by reason of the special exemptions allowable -by law they may not 'be liable, for tax.

Form No. 3, which is now obtainable at all post offices, .is the form to be utilised by all individual taxpayers, partnerships, e® Hates, and commercial, industrial, oir investment companies.

The return should be completed and forwarded to the Commissioner of Taxes, Wellington, on of before the Ist. June. If for any reason the return cannot be furnished by the prescribed date application should /foe made for an extension of time. Where returns are accepted compiled to a date subsequent to the 31st. March, they should be furnished within two months of that date.

Any persan required -by law to furnish a return and neglecting to do ®o i® liable- on conviction to a penarty not exceeding £IOO. Neglect to furnish returns at the prescribed time not only renders taxpayers liable to prosecution, but also results in many oases in an assessment of an amount on which it is considerably more tax than would othervvise be payable.

In the absence of a return the Department has power to make an assessment of an amount on which it ds considered tax ought to *be levied. The acceptance of the estimated assessment does not, however, absolve the taxpayer from the duty of furnishing a return.

If the tax payable under the estimaed assessment is more than the amount payable on the taxpayer’® actual assessable income, the taxpayer may render himself liable for the. highamount in addition to prosecution for failure to furnish the return at the prescribed time. Reports of prosecutions for failure to make returns in tlie past should be taken us a warning, and all persons liable to furnish returns are therefore advised in their own interests to forward such returns on or before the Ist.'June. ' ■ 1