Tax Dept. Aims To Keep Public Good Will

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31407, 28 June 1967, Page 12

Tax Dept. Aims To Keep Public Good Will

The Inland Revenue Department would continue to foster its hard-won public good will by improved services, the Commissioner of Inland Revenue (Mr D. A. Stevens) said in Christchurch. He said the department would, within the framework of existing legislation and possible amendments, try to encourage people to assess their own tax and pay it voluntarily. This idea had worked very well in the United States, where taxation authorities now accepted assessments from taxpayers, notably the large companies. “We are already developing the self-assessment system in New Zealand by having salary and wage earners make out their own returns at the end of the year,” he said. Mr Stevens, who took over the commissioner’s post a month ago, said he wanted the department to maintain the good relations between taxpayers and his department established by his predeces- ; sor. i The best way it could do |

this was by streamlining the taxation system and fully informing taxpayers of their rights. At the same time the department would do all that was necessary to ensure that the revenue from taxation was collected from everyone liable for taxes.

Yesterday Mr Stevens met representatives of the Society of Accountants and gave a staff lecture. Last night he attended a function to mark the twenty-first anniversary of the establishment of the taxation office in Christchurch.