TAXPAYERS' ENDURANCE TEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23052, 1 June 1938, Page 12

TAXPAYERS' ENDURANCE TEST

The people's patience is just about exhausted and their purse emptied with the arrival of June, owing to the concentration in the early months of the year of a multitude of tax payments. The climax came yesterday when hundreds waited in queues at the Chief Post Office for the privilege of paying levies and employment taxes on income other than wages and salary. Other hundreds cooled their heels at the Town Hall, waiting their turn to renew motor and driving licences. The attendant clerks were expedition itself and the public muttering was not directed at them but at the system which concentrates payments within set periods and makes congestion inevitable. There is a certain irony in causing the taxpayer to wait humbly in order to hand over his money, but it tends to fray at this time of year. The public temper yesterday was no doubt sharpened by the memory of the "blood and tears" expended on filling correctly and completely (under pain of heavy penalties) the various forms presented, as well as the income tax return due in Wellington to-day. Prior to that the halfyearly telephone bill and annual radio licence fee had been paid, and possibly the fee for a motor fitness certificate. Land tax returns had to be made by April 8, and income tax and employment levy paid by March 1. And, before financial breath could be taken after Christmas and holiday expenses, local rates had to be met. Truly these first five months of the year represent a taxpayer's endurance test. The remaining seven have to be spent in the "anti-social vice" of saving against the months of reckoning. The effect of the drain on general trade and business must be considerable. The Government and local bodies should seriously consider whether their demands for cash could not be spread over a longer period, to the general convenience and benefit.