A Promise Unredeemed

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 10

A Promise Unredeemed

The Land and Income Tax Bill introduced in Parliament yesterday is very much what had been forecast in the Government’s election policy—save in one important particular. The Labour Party’s objectionable proposal to collect immediately an extra year’s social security tax from the self-employed had one redeeming feature in its unequivocal promise that ** a special tribunal “ will be set up and empowered “ to remit social security tax on “ income earned during this * financial year to persons who “ can prove that they have “ already paid the equivalent of “ this tax ”. The bill now before Parliament provides for no such tribunal. Thus an election promise has been broken within weeks of the election. It is true that the Minister of Finance (Mr Nordmeyer), replying to Opposition questions, said that when P.A.Y.E. was in

operation the Government would introduce proposals for setting up a tribunal to deal with hardship or double payments. This is not good enough. A tribunal to deal with a special anomaly was promised; and the time to set it up is when the anomaly is created. The House is being asked to pass the bill with' only a vague promise that some sort of tribunal will be set tip to inquire into matters that may have nothing to do with the social security tax. It will be no excuse for the

Government to say that it has been unable to devise a procedure to give justice to selfemployed persons. Will it be better able to do so later in the year? This administrative problem should have been considered before the Government decided to create the anomaly; and it should be considered again now before this inequitable clause is persisted with.