OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 11

OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Effect of Unemployment Tax Explained.

Recently the secretary of the Canterbury General Labourers’ Union (Mr H. Worrall) wrote inquiring how the unemployment tax affected the position of pld age pensioners. The Commissioner of Taxes has replied pointing out that, in the first place, the Pensions Act provided that in the case of an unmarried person the amount of the pension, plus income from other sources, shall not exceed £79 19s per annum, and that in the case of a married couple income and pension combined similarly shall not exceed £l2l per annum, the income of each being taken as half the total income of both. Wnere income in excess of £39 was received, the pension was adjusted accordingly. The Unemployment Act required that all earnings shall be subject to a tax of Id on every Is Bd, except earnings from relief work and wages received by a woman or a girl in respect of private domestic service. This tax was payable by the worker and to disregard such payments in assessing pensions would mean that the tax was being refunded to the taxpayer. For this reason the gross amount of income was chargeable in every case. In regard to the unemployment levy of 5s a quarter, it was a special provision of the UnemplojTnent Act that no person in receipt of a pension under the Pensions Act, 1926, shall be liable for this tax, and it was a further provision that no person similarly in receipt of a pension shall be liable for unemployment relief tax in respect of income other than salary and wages.