EXHIBITORS AND THE INCOME TAX.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8392, 5 April 1907, Page 5

EXHIBITORS AND THE INCOME TAX.

By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 4. Interviewed by a reporter, to-day, with reference to the Christchurch » exhibitors' objections to pay income i tax on profits made, Mr P. Heyes, ; Commissioner of Taxes", explained that the law provided that every person who started business in the State must pay a deposit to the-Cus-toms as a guarantee that he would make a return of the income derived from the business. There was no question in regard to the law governing the exhibitors' liability, though the exhibitors considered • that they had some special claim for privilege in this matter. He did i say, when the Exhibition was opened, that he would not claim tax upon any indenting done from samples shown at the Exhibition, but it was not here where the complaint lay. It had to be remembered that there -were many Assyrians and others who ran shops at the Exhibition, making ,?reat profits on the sale of their goods. The income thus derived was from busineS3 done in the State, and was clearly taxable. For ' instance, theatrical companies doing business in New Zealand were taxed on their income, and why ( not "Won- ,' derland," "The Pike," and the other side-Shows at the Exhibition? There was never any difficulty with the permanent theatrical companies . periodically touring this country. They all paid a tax on their profits. These companies had visited New Zealand during the • Exhibition, against which they had to compete. Yet they had to pay the tax all the same, and the law did not make * any exceptions. In the present instance he failed to see where the "sharp practice" came in, as alleged by the South Australian Commissioner, seeing that Christchurch shopkeepers, who paid income tax, were in competition with Exhibition shop keepers who claimed exemption. Moreover, it must be remembered that where a man's business resulted in a loss his deposit for income tax ' was returned in full, and if the business showed a smaller profit thap the amount of the deposit the balance was returned. No deposition the tax had been collected from sample exhibitors at Christchurch. As to the attitude of the Department in the matter, there was, added the Commissioner, no authority for waiving the collection of the tax, which was being collected under the Statute Law.