THE INCOME-TAX

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11661, 27 October 1923, Page 5

THE INCOME-TAX

A FARMER'S DIFFICULTIES

IN MAKING RETURNS

Speaking on the question of taxation at a smoke concert held in Carterton In connection with the Wairarapa Agricultural Show, the People’s Day, and which took place yesterday, the Hon. R. F- Bollard (Minister for Internal Affairs) referred to the relief Parliament granted to farmers in regard to income tax, and quoted an amusing incident showing how a farmer, when the tax waa in operation, robbed himself. The farmer,, said Mr Bollard, does not like qther people to know his personal business, and so he filled in his own income tax returns with, in some cases, disastrous results to himself. One of such cases came under my observation a short time ago. This farmer friend of mine—mind, I’m a farmer myself—filled in his income tax return, and forwarded it to the Commissioner of Taxes, who sent the farmer a bill for £lO7. I knew the farmer’s business dealings, and I knew also that he had vastly overstated unintentionally his earnings. I placed the facts before the Commissioner of Taxes, who was a very fair man, and he agreed to a fresh return being furnished. The result was that the Commissioner of Taxes oanoelled the bill for £lO7, and substituted another for £6 IQs. So you see (added Mr Bollard, amid great laughter), the farmer, through making out his own return, was robbing himself.