GAOL FOR TAX EVASION

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28700, 25 September 1958, Page 12

GAOL FOR TAX EVASION

Recommendation By Judge

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September. 24. Legislation was needed to allow heavier maximum penalties—including imprisonment—for, taxation evasion, Mr Justice McCarthy said in a reserved judgment in the Supreme Court today. His Honour criticised the present practice whereby, he said, the Commissioner of Taxes assumed a function of the Court by imposing punishment by way of penalty taxes.

His Honour said the wilful making of false income tax returns' amounted to a deliberate evasion of one’s duties as a citizen, while, at the same time, advantage was being taken of the rights of citizenship.. “Through such actions, added burdens are thrown on those members of the community who, with integrity, face the!ir proper obligations—obligations which at no time are light,” he said. His Honour said that in cases where the offence was deliberate, and the amount involved was substantial, there was much to be said for the view that imprisonment was the punishment which really fitted. He said the case before him—his judgment upheld a Magistrate’s imposition of a £75 fine on each of three charges of wilfully making false tax returns —was not one of those cases.