TAX RELIEF FOR FARMERS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 12

TAX RELIEF FOR FARMERS

. (From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, May 8. The provisions of section 103 A of the Land and Income Tax Act, 1954, will be applied by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to farmers between the Rakaia and Rangitata rivers in Mid-Canterbury whose farms have been affected by drought.

This was confirmed today by the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon), who said that section 103 A would apply to any case where the commissioner was satisfied that the farmer had been forced to i sell livestock because of shortage of fodder or other factors arising from the conditions and the purchase of

replacement stock had to be def erred until the first or second year after the year of sale.

The section also applied to cases where stock, because of the conditions, was subsequently replaced by breeding and where stock sold in the ordinary course of business could not be replaced because of the conditions until the first or second year after the year of sale.

Mr Muldoon said the commissioner’s practice in the operation of the section was to defer the assessment of income arising from the sale of livestock from the year of sale to the year in which the livestock was replaced.

When replacement stock was purchased in the same income year as the sale occurred, the charging of the purchase price with the writedown to standard values at the end of the year would, in general, cancel out the additional income arising from the sAe. The local office of the Inland Revenue Department would assist in answering any inquiries. Mr Muldoon also announced today relief for farmers in Hawke’s Bay whose properties had been affected by drought