The Answer Is Taxation

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28671, 22 August 1958, Page 10

The Answer Is Taxation

(New Zealand WELLINGTON, August 21.

The Minister of Finance (Mr Nordmeyer) explaining the provisions of the Land and Income Tax Amendment (No 2) Bill in Parliament tonight said: There were many members, including himself, who did not understand the “implications, ramifications, and complications” in a measure of that kind. Opposition voice: Then why bring it down? Mr Nordmeyer, ignoring the interjection, went on to say that many lawyers and accountants would have difficulty in understanding the bill’s provisions. The first Opposition speaker, Mr J. T. Watts Fendalton) the former Minister of Finance, said that he also did not understand all the provisions. The leading tax consultant in New Zealand did not understand either.

’ress Association) As an example of the bill’s complexity, Mr Watts read the following sub-section of one section which occupies nine printed pages: “(b) The first £520 of the aggregable assessable income (not being income referred to in paragraph (a) of this definition) or, where that aggregable assessable income i? less than £520, the amount of that aggregable assessable income and any aggregable non-assessable income, but not exceeding such part of the aggregable non-assess-able income as when added to that aggregable assessable income will amount to £520. Mr Nordmeyer: Do you mean to say you can’t understand that? Mr Watts: No. And I am not going to let this clause past the committee stages, until the Minister explains it.