INCOME TAX OFFENCES

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1939, Page 5

INCOME TAX OFFENCES

HEAVY FINES IMPOSED [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, December 2. A total of 18 charges of breaches of the revenue regulations, four being joint charges, were admitted by a father and son, partners m a popular pie company, when they appeared m the Police Court, yesterday afternoon. James Nieper was fined a total ot £33, with costs, while his son, James Robert Nieper, was fined a total of £299, with costs. . . Counsel for Nieper, junior, said tnat for the past three years Nieper, senior, had been in ill-health, and had spent a whole year in hospital. The business had been difficult to handle, and it was because of this that no returns had been made. There was no suggestion of dishonesty, and the offences were purely the result of pressure of work. j- . Counsel for Nieper, senior, said that it was ignorance of the fact, that he had a taxable income, plus ill-health, that' resulted in the offences being committed. , > “The father is elderly, and has been ill for a long time, and this calls for leniency for him,” said Mr. Orr Walker, S.M. “However, lam not prepared to believe that he was justified in not making a return of income. In the case of the son, the circumstances are much more serious, for it must have occurred to him that he had duties to the Government and the revenue. to discharge. However, it is to his credit that he made no false returns, but it is a serious matter to evade the payment of income tax. From the public point of view, the Court has to show persons that they cannot break the laws with impunity.” 1 The taxation that should have been paid by the partnership over four years .amounted to a total of ■ £238. Mr. Orr Walker said that the Income Tax Commissioner would have power to collect the tax, and to impose a penal rate of up to three times the 'amount due, if he thought fit.