LAND TAX RETURNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13723, 13 April 1908, Page 4

LAND TAX RETURNS.

A cOnM.srONDE.VT who signs himself "Puzzled," writes; —"1 sec by the laturn form sent by the Tax Department this year that a list, of shares held in companies has to be added. Can you tell me why this is? Are we to be charged Land Tax twice over —once through the company and again direct? And if so, what Act of Parliament gives authority for this to be done'/"'

Section 11 of the Land and Income Assessment Act, passed last session, reads as follows : " (1) For the purposed of this Act all land owned by a company shall bo deeded (though not to the exclusion oi the liability cf the company or of any other perons) to be owned in common by the shareholders of that company in the proportions which their interests in the paid-up capital of the company bear to the total paid-tip capital, and the said *§ shareholders shall be individually assess-, V:. Ed and liable for graduated land tax ac- I cordingly in manner provided by sub-sec-tions three and four oi Section 13 thereof, and shall he entitled to the same deductions as is therein provided. (2) The term fig ' shareholders' shall {or the purposes of Kj this and the next succeeding section include all persons on whose behalf a share in the company is held by a trustee or by any oilier person. (3) The provisions of this section shall extend to all land which is deemed to be owned by a company under any of the provisions of this Act."

With regard to the form of the return, section 26 of the Act provides that "In addition to any returns required to be made under the provisions of the principal Act «vi)ty taxpayer shall, as and when required by the Commissioner, make all such returns as. are deemed by the Commissioner to be necessary for the purposes of this Act."