EVADING TAXATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1700, 19 April 1917, Page 2

EVADING TAXATION.

NOW that the income tax demands have all been issued and all but (he late-comers have paid their taxes, complaints are being made by some farmers who find that their prosperous neighbours are often escaping scot free, says a contemporary. These men have never furnished returns of their income, and so have evaded the payment of both the income taxes and of the excess profits tax. The Income Tax Department is not .unaware- of the fact that many farmers who should have paid income tax have not done so. A good deal of information has already been collected about these defaulters, but the staff of the Department—which is much below strength—has been unable during the present busy season to make full use of the information. In due time the defaulters will hear from the Department, and, unless they can show cause why they have not supplied returns of their incomes, they will have to pay treble the amount of the tax due by them. This applies to those farmers who did not pay their income tax last year as well as to those who are liable only for the taxes of this year. Last year the farmers' income tax was a new income, and the Department missed n number of farmers in the collection of it. Everything possible will be done' this year to remedy these errors. Td get the necessary information the Department is making use of country rolls and dairy factory returns, and it has also other sources of information. There arc evidences of alarm already among the defaulters. One of them is that

numbers of post offices are receiving applications for forms. The practice hitherto has been to let men who furnish their returns without being asked for them pay the tax, plus the usual addition of 10 per cent, for being late in payment, and to excuse them of payment of the penal charge of treble the amount of the tax.