INCOME TAX PROSECUTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18679, 8 April 1924, Page 9

INCOME TAX PROSECUTION.

FAILURE TO MAKE RETURNS. GISBORNE RESIDENT FINED [BZ TELEGRAPH. — ASSOCIATION. J GISBORNE, Monday. Three charges of failing to make returns of income -were preferred to-day against George Henry Lysnar, the charges relating to 1919, 1921 and 1922. Returns had been made but they had not Been forwarded until December, 1923. Counsel for the •Commissioner of Taxes said the department made repeated requests for returns but with little success. Defendant, who appeared in person, said the commissioner had for some years been in the habif of making default assessments of his income. He admitted his failure to comply with the requests but said the default assessment was too high and he had anticipated a refund when he ultimately made a return. He saw the commissioner subsequently and made a return, asking that any excess fee credited to the land tax account. In January he received a letter stating that £93 overpaid had been credited to tax due for 1917, though he held a receipt showing that for 1917-18 he paid income tax totalling £114. The department considered that he bad paid more tax than he should have paid. Counsel for the commissioner said the department had not charged defendant with failing to pay tax but with failing to make a return. The department's great difficulty was that a number of .taxpayers were content to pay default assessment; the real tax might be anytiling". . A fine of £5, with costs (£4) was imposed.