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of assessment in which the war which began in 1939 is terminated.
This means that the Ordinance will continue in operation until a
Feace Treaty is signed or until some declaration is made,
A11 possibly by Order in Council, that the war is at an end.
the taxes provided for under this Ordinance are assessable on
receipts during the previous year. As business had not been
resumed on any scale until early this year, it would not be
practicable to make any assessment of Business Profits Tax in
respect of the period ended 31st March, 1946. Instead of being
concerned with one Income Tax, it is necessary to deal instead
with a number of taxes each equivalent to an Income Tax but only
It would be affecting one particular section of the community.
impossible to collect all these taxes in respect of the year
ended 31st March, 1946 and it does not seem right that an effort
should be made to collect some of them leaving other sections of the community to get off scot free. In practice I fear that
there would be almost insuperable difficulties in collecting even some of them. Only one member of the War Taxation
Department has so far returned and Mr. Black who will take charge of the Department is still in Australia and in very
indifferent health. Several months must elapse before he
returns to duty. It is clear however, that tax must be collected next year in respect of the year 1st April, 1946 to 31st March, 1947 either under the War Revenue Ordinance or
under a new Income Tax Ordinance if one is introduced in the
meantime. It is a matter for consideration whether the tax year should be changed to the calendar year in which case tax
The Financial would be collectable from the 1st January, 1946.
Year and the Tax Year differ in a number of Colonies and I should be grateful for your views on the desirability of making this change with the object of obtaining three months'
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