MOST TAXPAYERS HONEST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19423, 7 September 1937, Page 13

MOST TAXPAYERS HONEST

COMMISSIONER'S TRIBUTE DETECTING THE GUILTY SYDNEY, Aug. C. According to the Commissioner of Taxation, Mr. E. J. McMahon, the overwhelming majority of taxpayers in New South Wales are honest. He said yesterday that most errors in the annual returns were the result either of miscalculation or lack of knowledge. . The proportion of the public whicn deliberately set itself to deceive the department was surprisingly small, and could easily be "coped with" by means which he would not, for obvious reasons, disclose. The Taxation Department; is now being flooded with income tax returns, but, as this is a yearly experience, nobody on the premises appears to be excited. Whatever their degree, the members of the staff accept the situation as entirely normal, their sole worry being accurate assessments. Mr. McMahon said that naturally there were individuals who thought it smart to enlarge upon then: alleged methods of cheating the revenue. As a ' fact, from a careful examination or the returns, their claims were usually founded upon imagination. It did not follow that the bulk of returns were made up correctly. A nign percentage of them were inaccurate. But legitimate mistakes were easily remedied at a word from the department, which did not take an unjustifiably serious view of them. "There appears to be a certain glamour," said Mr. McMahon, in telling other people how easy it is to evade income tax, but, from what I have seen, it is nearly all idle taiK. We have our ways of finding de- ' Apropos of a recent cable message from England, stating that a man had been heavily fined for sending an abusively-addressed envelope to his local collector of taxes, the Commissioner mentioned that uncomplimentary letters, all of which were anonymous, were often delivered to him. "Of course," he concluded with o smile, "I take no notice of them, although, perhaps, if I were in Ji,nglSnd, I might have to."