CO129-615-3 Income tax 24-2-1948 - 12-8-1948 — Page 27

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(1) ignorance of the rights conveyed by

Chapter VII of the Ordinance.

(ii)

a high level of personal incomes

involving an effective rate under Personal Assessment greater than the standard rate applied to profits.

(iii) unwillingness to disclose full business

interests

(iv) disinclination to go to the trouble

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of being personally assessed when the standard rate is as low as 10 per cent.

974 personal assessment files were opened and 222

return forms issued. Of these 133 had been received back

leaving 89 still outstanding. In 12 cases liability to tax amounting in all to $19,669.46 emerged. In 6 cases there

was no liability. The remaining 115 cases were awaiting

assessment or were still under correspondence.

Personal

Assessment was handled by the section dealing with Salaries

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and Annuities Tax. It will have to be handled by a separate

section as and when this type of assessment grows in popularity.

Interest Tax:

28. The Interest Tax has, in some respects, proved the

most difficult to administer, since it is due to be paid in

the first instance by a large number of borrowers, many of

But whom are illiterate and completely ignorant of the law. as the details of 3,660 mortgages or other charges likely to

come within the scope of Chapter V of the Ordinance gradually extracted from various sources, with the co-operation of the Treasury and the Land Office, and recorded, it proved possible to trace those who were liable to deduct tax and a

From $120 in June, 1947 steadily rising revenue was secured.

were

(the first revenue to be collected by the Department) the monthly total had risen to $86,965 in March, 1948 and collection is now running at the rate of at least $750,000 per annum. This was achieved in spite of ignorance and apathy on the part of persons liable and, in some instances, in face of active opposition. Considerable assistance was afforded by arrange- ments whereby various legal representatives and accountants who act on behalf of groups of mortgagees pay over their