LAND AND INCOME TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8959, 17 August 1892, Page 5

LAND AND INCOME TAX.

THE AMENDING BILL. [by telegraph.—special correspondent.] Wellington", Tuesday. The Bill Amending the Land and Income Assessment Act has been circulated. It declares that all land and mortgages of friendly societies, savings banks, and the commissioners of sinking funds, or land owned in mortgages held by the trustees of any sinking fund of any local body, the revenues of which are not taxdd, shall be exempt from taxation. It is also provided that the mortgages and income of any public charitable institutions shall be free from taxation. As already stated exemption is granted where a company has borrowed money on debentures, the Bill containing the following provisions on this subject, to be added to section '2 of schedules of the Act passed last year, "provided that a company having borrowed money in the manner hereinbefore mentioned upon debentures shall not be liable to be assessed for income tax in respect of so much of the money so borrowed as the company proves to the satisfaction of the Commissioner at the date for making the annual return of income as invested by such company on mortgages of land in New Zealand duly registered, and also that such mortgage of land had been assessed for land tax under schedule A of this Act, and that the then holder of any such debenture was residing beyond New Zealand, and such regulations shall from time to time be 1 prescribed as may be necessary to give effect to this provision." *

The other important provision of which you have also been informed, extending the exemption in cases of income from business, is comprised in the following provision, which is to take the place of section 2 of schedule D in the Act of last session:—"lncome tax shall be assessed and paid by every person upon the income derived from business as aforesaid, and when the taxable amount of income so derived has been ascertained in accordance with this Act, every person, whether carrying on business alone or in partnership, shall be entitled to a deduction by way of exemption of £300, but no person shall be allowed more than one exemption either in respect of income derived from business or in respect of income derived from employment or emolument." Amendments consequent upon this change are made in various other clauses. An amendment in the second section of Schedule A, provides that the owner of any land or mortgage which does not produce more than £200 per year, shall be entitled to the further exemption allowed if he cannot earn further income from business or employment. The increased exemption was previously allowed only for a land or mortgage of £120 a year. The following new section is added to schedule A : —" Where land is sold on time or deferred payment by any owner other than the Crown, and money is owing to the vendor in respect of such land, the amount so owned shall for the purposes of, this Act be deemed to be a registered mortgage, and shall be stated by the vendor accordingly in any return, made by him under this Act, and the amount so owing may be deducted by the purchaser as if it were secured to the vendor upon a registered mortgage." 1 The Bill provides that objections to assessments of income shall be heard by a Resident Magistrate instead of by a Board of Review. A good many machinery clauses are introduced in the Bill. ' There is provision under which land maybe taken by the Crown if the owner is not satisfied with the assessment. In order to settle any doubts a clause appears in. the Bill validating all regulations and proceedings under the Act of last session.