SIX CHARGES ADJOURNED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 17

SIX CHARGES ADJOURNED

Deduction Of Wages Tax (New Zealand Press Association) ROTORUA. M?y 12. “If the provisions of the Social Security and Finance Acts are so wide and so obscure that they cannot be defined, it must be bad legislation, and, again, if one can construe the meaning in any way. must it not be in favour of the subject rather than the Crown?” This was posed in .the Rotorua Magistrate’s Court today by Mr G. J. Donne, S.M.. who adjourned six charges of failing to deduct wages tax brought against George Marshall Demanser, of Oruanai, a’fencing contractor, engaged by the Lands and Survey Department.

Mr M. Gavin, of Hamilton, represented the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. He said Demanser employed men on post-split-ting work, and as such was under an obligation to deduct wages tax. In reply to the Magistrate, Mr Gavin said the employees concerned could be termed piece workers, but he agreed there was no firm definition of the character of piece work. He claimed taxation was applicable on money paid for any work involving personal labour, but said there were no reported cases to give an authority for proving such liabilities. The Magistrate: Do you mean to say that if I employ a parttime gardener who brings his own lawnmower for a few hours a day, and I pay so much an hour, I have to deduct wages tax? Mr Gavin: Yes. The Magistrate: Well, I am not happy about all this, particularly on the authority and definition questions. It may be the answers are so obvious as to have excluded the need for decisions in the past, but I need time to satisfy myself on all points.