ONE RETURN ONLY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 221, 15 June 1936, Page 10

ONE RETURN ONLY

Employment Tax Assessed

Like Income Tax

MINISTER’S EXPLANATION OF CHANGES IN LAW

Now that assessment and collection of the employment tax is tlie function of tlie Commissioner of Taxes, the necessity for submitting two separate returns of income for employment tax and income tax purposes will in due course disappear, but the collection of tlie tax will still be made through the post office, tlie Minister of Labour, the Hon. 11. T. Armstrong, explains in a memorandum giving explanatory notes on tlie Employment Promotion Act. which came into force on June 1, consolidating and concentrating in one Act the provisions dealing with assistance to persons out of employment and the promoting of additional employment, which have hitherto been scattered through the Unemployment Act, 1930, the Amendment Acts of 1931. 1932 and 1934, and sundry Finance Aets. The Unemployment Board being abolished, the administration of the Employment Promotion Act is vested in the Department of Labour, under the control of the Minister of Labour. For this purpose the Secretary of Labour is charged with most of the functions previously exercised by the Commissioner of Unemployment, except that the Commissioner of Taxes now assumes control of the assessment and collection of employment tax as if it were income tax.

The section of tlie Unemployment Amendment Act, 1931, which allowed amounts paid as unemployment tax as a special exemption for income tax purposes has not been reproduced in the present Act. The Government considers that the.proper place for such a provision is in the Land and Income Tax Act, and the Government may yet decide to proceed with the appropriate amendment of that Act. Apportionment of Income. Where income received in advance is apportioned over one or more years by tlie Commissioner of Taxes for income tax purposes, that apportionment now automatically becomes operative for employment tax.

Powerwas given previously to make default assessments on persons who failed to make declarations of income or made faulty ones, but the complementary power to fix a date by which objection to the default assessment could be lodged was omitted. One section adds the necessary power, and allows the Commissioner discretionary power to accept, if he thinks fit, objections made after the time allowed has expired. The cost of administration was previously charged direct against the fund. The new Act makes such expenses a charge on the Consolidated Fund in the first place, and such proportion of those expenses as the Minister of Labour, with the approval of the Minister of Finance, shall direct, will be recouped to the Consolidated Fund from the Employment Promotion Fund. Sustenance Allowances.

Among the most important changes are those in the section dealing with the payment of sustenance allowances. The maximum rates fixed by the Unemployment Act, 1930. have been dropped and in lieu thereof a wide discretion lias been given the Minister ot Labour, who may, with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance, fix the rates to be paiil from time to time. As before, a residence of not less than .six months is a necessary qualification, and no allowance is payable where a person refuses or fails to accept employment considered by the Minister to be suitable in its nature, location, conditions and remuneration. The Minister is. however, given an overriding discretion to enable exceptional cases’ to be promptly and sympathetically dealt with, where these conditions would otherwise prevent the giving of adequate relief. The only persons to whom allowances may not be paid are those under the age of 16 years and males over 2d years of age who are wholly exempt from liability for the registration levy. This represents an improvement in that sustenance may now be paid to males between the ages of 16 and 20 where considered desirable, and to women. Exemptions to Elderly People. The exemption from the employment charge granted by regulation to males over the age of 65 years and females over the age of 60. whose income for the year did not exceed £lO-1 has been included in the Act, and has been extended by a sub-section which states that where the income of such persons is just over the limit of £lO4 per annum, tho amount of tax payable will be reduced so that the net income received by that person will not be reduced below £lO4. The same exemption is allowed to people who satisfy the Commissioner that through physical or mental disability they are unable to follow any regular employment and whose income for the year did not exceed the figure of £lO4.

The rate of tax payable is Sd. in the £. The rate may be varied by Order in Council, but may not be increased beyond one penny in every one shilling and eightpence (1/- in the £).