NO MORE TAX SPIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19944, 31 October 1934, Page 9

NO MORE TAX SPIES

DECISION IN BRITAIN The British Government has decided to dispense with the services of Income Tax spies as far as possible in the future. Appropriate new income-tax regulations in the next Budget will be modelled on the result of the seven years’ inquiry by Lord Macmillan’s committee. . Informers who have been promised rewards by the Inland Revenue authorities for spying on their neighbours’ or business friends’ incomes will not be able to sue the Government in the courts for the payment of those rewards if any dispute arises. The Government considers that its own Income Tax Inquiry Department is now sufficiently well organised to be able to deal with the majority of tax evaders. This does not mean that the informer will completely disappear, but cases have come to light which have shown the Inland Revenue authorities that their system of making use of private informers has been gravely abused. It has been proved that gangs of informers have set themselves up to carry out organised blackmail on quite respectable taxpayers. As a result of a case which came before the Income Tax Commissioners recently, a special inquiry into the activities of these informers was made, and the revelations then made have led to the Government’s new policy.