PENALTIES FOR OFFENCES

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1933, Page 7

PENALTIES FOR OFFENCES

■■ • 'Z SAWS TAX ACT BREACHES ■ - " t ,/, . " '. ■ ; PRECAUTION AGAINST FRAUD •« heavy fines provided for - r _ POWERS. -OF, OODDECTORS . Y ?J: . i? By Telegraph—Press Association. ~ Wellington, Last Night The Sales Tax Bill introduced in the House of Representatives last night contains a comprehensive schedule of offences and penalties. .. Details are:— L For defrauding revenue by evading or enabling others to evade payment of sales tax, obtaining or enabling others to obtain a drawback or refund of sales tax or conspiring with ady other, person, whether the latter is in New Zealand or not, to defraud revenue in relation to any goods—a fine of '£loo or a fine of-three times the sale value of the goods, which* ever is the greater. • -■ / Az! X.HI* Erroneous returns of statements—£l9o. Securing erroneous drawbacks or refunds—£loo or a fine of three times the amount of the refund. Erroneous declarations—£loo. ■ Wilfully false declarations—imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. Production of falsedocumentsr—£loo. Faillire to answer questions truly—£so, In addition all directors and officers of a company'axe liable for ,an offence by the company unless proof is given that the act took place without, their knowledge or consent * Where an offence is both indictable and punishable by a fine the offender may be proceeded against either by. indictment or summarily,’but not by both processes. Where an offence is punishable under two or more provisions the offender shall not .be punished twice for the .Same .offence. ■ :■ .S. Whenever any act Is an offence, although done without ihterit to defraud' revenue, the offender may be convicted of the offence on an information charging him with doing the’act with that intent and shall not be acquitted, on that information merely because intent is not proved. • *’• - ; — , LIABILITY TO IMPRISONMENT. Any person who is convicted summar-. ily of un offence and who has within two years before .conviction bpen summarily convicted of a like offence against the Bill or any other of the Customs Abts may, if the magistrate or justices think fit, be sentenced 1 to .imprisonment fort a period not exceeding three months in lieu « of being fined. “Subject:to. that: provision a fine shall be imposed in every case bn summary conviction of an offence and the minimum fine in any such case shall be £25 or one-fourth of the maximum fine that can be imposed, whichever ’ W the less. -?'</ ? ! In cases where no other penalty is provided, an offender against the Bill shall be liable to a fine of £lO. - ! |-’ Every information for an offence shall be laid by the collector. Power is given to the police to arrest without warrant any person who there is reasonable cause to suspect has committed any- offence with intent to defraud revenue. Such action must be taken within’ seven day* of'the supposed date of the offence. The person so arrested shall not be summarily tried except on information laid by the collector. f’

: In any action or other proceedings, whether civil or criminal and whether judicial or not, for the recovery of sale* tax or penalty: or fine or otherwise excepting criminal prosecution for an , indictable offence, no person, whether party to proceedings or not, shall be excused from answering any questions put to him or from producing any document bn the ground that such action would tend to incriminate him. No Customs o* police officer or witness for the'Crown * need disclose the source of information fix' their possession./ /•* -.