Unemployment Levy Now Due

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 5, 6 November 1931, Page 8

Unemployment Levy Now Due

Declarations to be Signed Another instalment of the unemployment levy, and the first instalment of the emergency charge on incomes, other than- salary or wages, became due on November Ist. The amount of the levy is 20/ a year, payable in one sum or at the rate of 5/ on August 1, November 1, February 1 and May 1. The charge on income is at the rate of Id in every 6/8, and is based on two-thirds of the income for the year ended March 31, 1931, and on onethird of the income for the year ending March 31, 1932. A feature of the procedure in respect to payment of the charge is the completion of certain declarations

concerning such income other than salary and wages. The declaration form contains three clauses as follows : 1. I declare that during the year ended March 31, 1931, I derived no income from any source other than salary or,wages; or, 2. That I have furnished to the Commissioner of Taxes a declaration of the total income derived by me from all sources other than salary or wages during the year ended March 31, 1931 ; or, 3. That the following is a true and complete statement of income derived by me from all sources other than salary or wages during the year ended March 31, 1931. Declarations Required Every person who 'is not wholly exempt from liability for the general unemployment levy, whether or not he is in receipt of any income other than salary or wages, and every woman whose income for the year ended March 31, 1931, or March 31, 1932, is not less than £250, is required to furnish the declaration to the Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department. If, in any such declaration, the amount of income other than salary or wages is not disclosed, the declarant is required to furnish a further declaration of income to the Commissioner of Taxes, Wellington, in which the amount of such income must be disclosed. Men over the age of 65 who have obtained exemption from payment of the levy under certain conditions are not exempt, under the Unemployment Act, from payment of the charge on income. Practically the only items of income which are exempt are war pensions, compensation under the Workers Compensation Act, income derived from beyond New Zealand upon which income tax has been paid in any other British Dominion, and all income derived in New Zealand by people who ate not ordinarily resident in the Dominion or are otherwise exempt

from the unemployment levy. Deductions from Rents “Income” means net income. A person deriving income from rents is entitled to deduct from the gross amount the cost of naming the rents, such asj, interest, rates and repairs. Also any amount from which the wages tax has been deducted, including retiring allowances paid to exemployees from private funds, and directors’ fees which have been declared by the Unemployment Board to be subject to the wages tax, will not require to be included in the person’s declaration for the assessment of the charge. Employers have a direct responsibility with regard to payment of the levy by their employees, and the Unemployment Amendment Act gives them authority to deduct from the wages of an employee the amount of any instalment that isi overdue more than one month. Should an unregistered employee, or one who is in arrears for one month in the payment of the levy, be kept in employment

for more than seven days, the employer is liable to a fine of £2O. Default in payment of the levy for more than one month malfes a person liable on summary conviction to a fine and also without conviction to a penalty of 6d for every month or part of month after the first month during which the levy is not paid. The maximum of this latter penalty is 2/6. Free Board and Lodging Taxable In many cases employers are apparently not aware that the value of free housing or free board and lodging', mealsi, etc., supplied to employees are taxable emoluments and should therefore be included in the assessment of salary or wages for the purposes of payment of the tax.