INCOME TAX.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 147, 22 June 1906, Page 5

INCOME TAX.

«. ENQUIRIES IN ENGLAND. IPBKBI ASSOCIATION .1 LONDON, 21st June. The Committee, of which Sir Charles Dillke is chairman, appointed to consideT the income tax question, took the evidence of Mr. Coghlan, New South Wales Agent-General. Mr. Coghlan favoured progressive graduation rather than digression from tflie fixed rate. He emphatically dissented from the view that differentia tion of the tax between earned and unearned property- would cause the withdrawal of capital from the country. The British public admitted to the income tax collectors thaß its gross income from all classes of profits in the year 1903-4 was £902,758^585; the amount paid in income tax (one shiliing in the £) was £30,500,450; for 1904-5 the amount paid was £31,263,654. Two years ago a committee was set) up to enquire into and report whether it was desirable to effect any alteration in the system of the income tax, and last year the report was submitted. The committee reported that there was still a substantial amount of fraud and evasion, and recommended that it should be made obligatory, under a small penalty, to fill up and return the income tax forms. The committee also held that "the taxation of income at its source should be applied to profits from patents," but the existing law and practice as to copyright and terminable annuities should remain unaltered. The committee considered that if publio opinion were favourable the system of levying the tax on the profits of the previous year should be adopted instead of the three years' average system. Further, they recommended the shnpliflcaMon of tho forms, and that it should be made more generally known that the Surveyor of Taxes gratuitously advises and assists >& filling up the forms. The committee also recommended' tthat the grant of exemption or abatement because of emallness of income should be abolished in the aase of persons resident outeide the United Kingdom, except possibly in the case of British subjects. No alteration of the l»vw was, In their opinion, necessary in c ow»necsioo with; 00-aneijtjUYe -societies,