Undue wait for refunds

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 6

Undue wait for refunds

The Inland Revenue Department estimates that about 10,000 salary and wage earners in Christchurch cannot get refunds on last year’s income tax. The refunds have been held up unduly by the failure of employers to furnish reconciliation statements which show that the tax has been paid.

The department intends to punish those employers responsible by taking court action. Last year, the department resorted to the courts and had some employers fined for failing to comply with this requirement.

The District Commissioner of Taxes (Mr C. K. Jones) said yesterday that employers were supposed to have furnished the statements last. May but there were still [about 1000 outstanding. More

than 3000 returns of salary and wage earners were in the office waiting to be processed, but nothing could be done until employers co-operated. The department was also waiting for about 6000 or more returns from salary’ and wage earners who had not filed them, obviously because their employers had not given them copies of details of the tax they had paid. So far this year, the department has received returns from 119,000 salary and wage earners, most of which have been processed and forwarded to Wellington for the issue of refunds.

The department is now about to tackle the returns of provisional taxpayers, Companies, and estates. This [will occupy staff until the lend of the financial year.