TAXATION DISCLOSURES

Taupo Times, Volume III, Issue 108, 19 February 1954, Page 9

TAXATION DISCLOSURES

INVITATION TO TAXPAYERS i The Commissioner of Inland Revenue again invites taxpayers who may have rendered incorrect returns of income for taxation purposes, or who may have failed to render returns over a number of years, to put the matter right with his Department. This invitation was first made public in the newspapers throughout New Zealand in April 1948, when it was explained that, if a taxpayer of the class referred to made a voluntary confession to the Department, then an undertaking was given that a prosecution in the Court would not be taken and that the taxpayer's name and any penalty charged by way of Penal Tax would not be included in the New Zealand Gazette. Since that announcement was made in 1948 "the Department has extended the field of its investigations by the appointment of additional Inspectors and has also improved the examnation of returns by its clerical staff. Very large amounts of additional revenue have been recovered by this process and heavy penalties together with Court fines have resulted from hundreds of cases where the Department has discovered the evasion. The Land and Income Tax Act empowers the Commissioner in such cases to charge additional tax by way of penalty of up to three times the amount of the tax sought to be evaded — this in addition to any Court fines imposed by a Magistrate. All this publicity may be avoided if defaulting taxpayers accept the invitation to make a full disclosure to the Department. The Commissioner has adopted the practice, in such cases of full diselosures, of imposing a penalty by way of Penal Tax of an amount not exceeding interest over the period during which the taxpayer has had the use of the funds which rightly should have been paid to the Department at the proper time. Such disclosure must be entirely voluntary in the sense that it must be made before any inquiry or investigation is commenced by the Department. A number of taxpayers have since 1948 taken advantage of the Commissioner's invitation and he hopes that others who had no knowledge of the invitation extended in 1948 will now1 take advantage of the opportunity to put their taxation affairs in order before their deficiencies are discovered by the Department. Those taxpayers who wish to make a voluntary disclosure should either call at the nearest Tax Office or ask their Accountant or Solicitor to notify the Department, — P.B.A.