PAY-AS-YOU-EARN

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 59, 7 September 1945, Page 6

PAY-AS-YOU-EARN

DECENTRALISATION NEEDED

Up to the present it had not been possible to work out a pay-as-you-earn system of income taxation, and such a scheme would be quite impossible until the Land and Income Tax Department was decentralised, said the Minister of Finance (Mr. Nash) in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon when moving the second reading of the Land and Income Tax (Annual) Bill. Fourteen branches of the Department, which entailed the transferring of staff and files., were now in operation in various parts of the Dominion and they would be a great advantage to the general taxpayer.

In reply to Mr. F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga), who asked if decentralisation were a preliminary to pay-as-you-earn, Mr. Nash said decentralisation must precede that system of payment. "We were contemplating introducing the pay-as-you-earn system," he said, "but found it impossible to do so until decentralisation took place." The Minister pointed out that those who advocated the advantages of pay-as-you-earn could pay by that method now in either of two ways—by purchasing income tax certificates at the Post Office, where Hhey were available at a discount equivalent to li per cent, interest a year, or by forwarding advance remittances to the Commissioner of Taxes, who would allow 1| per cent, interest. Discussing the taxing of servicemen, Mr. Nash said the Government worked i* out on the basis that those who fought should not pay, and that those who stayed at home should pay for those away. Therefore servicemen's pay was not taxed in any way, which was unique.