INCOME TAX

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 6

INCOME TAX

Five Per Cent. Penalty Now Enforced LARGE SUM COLLECTED “Income tax payments have been coining In steadily during the past two or three weeks and we have a substantial amount of money in hand at present,” said an official of the Land and Income Tax Department in Wellington yesterday. Wednesday was the . last day for payment before the imposition of the 5 per cent, penalty and he said that yesterday the' department had to deal with a fairly large number Of taxpayers who had “just missed the bus, but the law being definite on the point, they had to pay the extra amount. The department would have a tallyup after the end of the financial year, March 31, when cash in hand would be compared with the amount which should have been collected. Present indications were that the total would be considerably in advance of that collected up to March 31, 1940. The reason for this was that whereas last year the basic rate was 2/- in the pound, this year it was 2/6 in the pound, plus 15 per cent, special war tax. Indications were that there were about 25 per cent, more taxpayers this year than last year. That was thought to be due to more people arriving at the point where their earnings were taxable, namely, the £4 a week level. Final notices had recently been issued to those who had not yet paid their land tax, which became due on October 1 last. Although the total amount of land tax was a little less than last year’s figure, payments came in fairly satisfactorily, concluded the official.