SECRET RESERVES?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 144, 31 March 1948, Page 4

SECRET RESERVES?

DEFERRED TAX PAYMENTS Budgetary accounting was on a cash basis and consequently the balance of tax unpaid at the end of the present financial year would be taken into ac- • count in the compilation of the 1J43 Budget, said the Acting-Minister of Finance (the Hon. A. H. Noidmeyei) in reply to a query raised by Associa.ed Chambers of Commerce. In the latter’s reply to the Minister, a copy of whicli was read at last week s meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, it was stated that amount of income tax remaining unpaid by March 31 would in effect constitute a secret reserve brought about ns a consequence of the deferment the date for payment of the tax Also it was apparently already earmarked for use in ; expanding-State expenditi for the 1948-49 Budget year. “As the deferred tax payments r ferred to actually relate to 1947-48 ' states the letter, “their not being taken into account in respect of the financial operations for 1947-48 means that, am surplus in respect of that yen • duced (on paper), and with it the p . peet of imperative reductions. The Budgetary review of 1947-48 operations Simfld include a close estimate ot mcome tax remaining unpaid as at M T r he presmSt (Mr Gordon StewarO remarked that if the Minister kept on he would eventually have a full yeai s taxation in reserve.