EVASION OF TAXES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 215, 11 September 1944, Page 6

EVASION OF TAXES

ACTION BY COMMISSIONER "WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR" (0.C.) WELLINGTON, Sunday. No evidence was available that any section of the community had, by concerted action, succeeded in evading payment of the whole or part of their income tax liabilities, said the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, in a letter 'to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, in reply to a communication from the chamber. The Minister added that the Commissioner of Taxes took action without fear or favour against those who failed to pay their taxes. The chamber, in its letter to the Minister, had-.drawn his attention to a report that certain sections of the community, by concerted action, had succeeded in evading payment of taxation. It had also pointed out that in presenting the 1943 Budget Mr. Nash had undertaken to conduct a drive against defaulting taxpayers, and the chamber had suggested that the result of that should be made public. In reply to this the Minister explained that the staff of the Land and Income Tax Department was so depleted by the demands of the armed forces that it was not possible to -carry out fully the inspection work which was so desirable and necessary in normal times. The Government, realising the position, passed an Act in August last year enabling the Commissioner of Taxes to reassess taxation on income for ten years past in cases where it was found that fraudulent or wilfully misleading returns had been furnished. A certain number of inspectors were carrying out investigations, and from time to time reports of prosecutions taken by the commissioner appeared in the newspapers.