SHOPKEEPER FINED £20

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 12

SHOPKEEPER FINED £2O

FALSE INCOME TAX RETURNS NEGLIGENCE OF DEFENDANT Two charges of negligently making false income tax returns, and two charges of wilfully committing the same offence, were brought against Percy W. Allen, storekeeper, by the Commissioner of Taxes in the Police Court yesterday. Defendant was represented by Mr. J. F. R. Wallace, and pleaded not guilty. Mr. Meredith, jum\, who prosecuted, said that defendant had declared his income as £397 and £3Ol respectively for the years 1930 and 1931, whereas an inspector who had investigated the position in conjunction with an accountant had worked out the incomes for the two years at £926 and £1025. The magistrate said defendant was a business man, and as such it was his duty to keep a proper account of his dealings, not only between himself and his customers, but between himself and the State. He had apparently been so intent on his trading that he left his books to an incompetent man, and so his income and capital had not been properly divided. " I will not brand defendant by saying he did it wilfully, but there is no doubt he was negligent," the magistrate said. The two charges of wilfully making false returns were dismissed, and defendant was fined £lO on each of the two other charges.