INCOME TAX EVASION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 131, 15 March 1933, Page 6

INCOME TAX EVASION.

RULES OF MORALITY. HOW CONSCIENCES VARY. There is a popular belief that many persons in the community succeed in evading their legal responsibilities as far as the payment of income tax is concerned. Whether the number is large or small, this section was the subject of gentle censure by .the New South Wales Commissioner of Taxation (Mr Chenoweth) recently, when giving evidence at the taxation inquiry. Answering a question whether he could make any suggestion which would permit of less rigidity without facilitating evasion of income tax, Mr Chenoweth said the proposition was sometimes advanced that the rules of morality as between one individual and another were not applicable to relations between an individual and the community as a whole. Consciences were supposed to be less sensitive in matters appertaining to the State. As to the dispersion of tax evasion; it could not be said that this could be confined to any particular class. Possibly it might be thought when big cases were reported in the newspapers, added Mr Chenoweth, that only the wealthy were addicted. There were, however, numerous cases of small taxpayers, some of whom also from time to time appeared before the Courts, who sought to evade the attention of the taxation office. Not only peoplo in largo businesses, professional men and wage earners, but practically every class was found to have its proportion of persons who either furnished incorrect return® or did not furnish returns at all.