JOCKEYS AND THE EMERGENCY TAX.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20915, 24 July 1933, Page 7

JOCKEYS AND THE EMERGENCY TAX.

TO THE EDITOR OK THE rCESS. Sir,—At the present time the Government is collecting, out of jockeys' earnings, a substantial sum of money to which it is not legally entitled. The racing clubs deduct from jockeys' riding fees one shilling in the pound, and the clubs pay this amount to the Government for emergency tax. The riding fees arc therefore treated as if they are in the same category as wages. This is not the correct basis on which to assess the tax. The ordinary business man pays emergency tax on the amount of his net income—the jockey is paying tax on his gross income. I know of one case where a jockey travelled from Cluistchurch to ride a horse at a North Island meeting. He was entitled to a riding fee of £3; from this was deducted three shillings emergency tax, and the cost of travelling from Christchurch to the North Island and back was about £B. Had he paid no tax he would have been £5 out of pocket on his venture, but he still had deducted from his earnings three shillings for tax. The Government must have collected a very substantial sum from the riding fees of the jockeys throughout New Zealand, and I do not suppose more than one in twenty is aware that he is entitled to a refund. If a jockey has earned say £SOO in riding fees during the year, he will, of ceurse, have had £25 deducted from this amount. If it has cost him in travelling expenses, telegrams, postages, riding gear, and other legitimate expenses, a sum of say £3OO to earn this money, he has paid £ls too much, and is entitled to a rebate corresponding with the amount he has overpaid the Government.^—Yours, etc., R.M.T. July 21, 1933. TAn officer of the Income Tax Department in Christchurch, to whom this letter was submitted, made the following statement: If the jockeys will furnish the department with a statement of their expenses the matter will be adjusted by the department and a refund made if it is demonstrated that it is due to them—that is, proved that they have incurred the expenses. I