Land and Income Tax (Amendment) Act 1897 (NSW)

Act No. 21, 1897.

An Act to provide that the Land and Income Tax

for 1896 may he assessed, levied, and collected

after that year; to validate certain assess­ ments, charges, notices, and payments in respect of any Land Tax and Income Tax ; to make better provision for the collection of the Land and Income Tax for 1896 and subsequent years; to make better provision in respect of assessment-books; and for purposes incidental to the above objects. [2nd December, 1897.]

BE it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative	Assembly of New South Wales in Parliament assembled, and by the
authority of the same, as follows :—
1. The land tax and the income tax for the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six may be assessed, levied, and collected at any time after the commencement of this Act.

All assessments and levies made in the period between the

commencement of the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety- seven and the commencement of this Act, and all things done during the said period in connection with any assessments and levies, when­ ever made, in respect of the land tax and the income tax for the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six shall be as valid as but not more so than if made or done during the last-mentioned year.

relating thereto respectively.

2. Where before the day of the commencement of this Act a

notice of assessment of land tax or income tax or a notice purporting

to be such has been given by the Commissioners to a taxpayer, and the amount of the tax has been paid, the assessment of the said tax and the said notice shall be deemed valid and to have been duly made and given, and the said amount shall be deemed to have been duly paid and received, notwithstanding any omission to comply with or contra­ vention of the provisions of the Principal A c t : Provided that nothing in this section shall, so far as regards the costs of any appeal now pending or the amount of any assessment of land or income, prejudice or affect any appeal now pending under the Principal Act, or any notice

of appeal, notice of objection, or other proceeding, matter, or thing

3 . Where before the day of the commencement of this Act

a notice of assessment of land tax or income tax or a notice purporting
to be such has been given by the Commissioners to a taxpayer, but the amount of the tax has not been paid, the assessment of the said tax and the said notice shall be deemed valid and to have been duly made and given, and the said amount shall be due and payable notwith­ standing any omission to comply with or contravention of the Principal
Act.

I f the said amount is not paid within sixty days after the day

of the commencement of this Act, or within any time limited in that
behalf in such notice as aforesaid (whichever time is the longer) the
taxpayer shall, in addition to the amount of the tax, pay by way of
fine a sum equal to ten per centum of the said amount.
The amount of the tax, together with all fines accrued, may,
after the expiration of the said sixty days or other longer time as

aforesaid, be recovered by the Commissioners on behalf of Her Majesty : Provided that nothing in this section shall deprive the taxpayer of the right of appeal allowed by the Principal Act, and that nothing in this

section shall, so far as regards the costs of any appeal now pending or
the amount of any assessment of land or income, prejudice or affect any appeal now pending under the Principal Act, or any notice of appeal, notice of objection, or other proceeding, matter, or thing relating thereto respectively.

4 . For the collection of the land tax and the income tax for the

year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six (including those cases where any notice has before the day of the commencement of this Act been determined by any court to be invalid), the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, and the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, notwithstanding anything contained in the Principal Act, the Land Tax Act of 1895, and the Income Tax Act of 1895, and whether the year of assessment has, or has not, closed, the following provisions shall have effect:—

(a)	The Commissioners shall send a notice, containing the par­	ticulars hereinafter mentioned, by post, addressed to the usual
or last known residence of the taxpayer, together with a
demand, setting forth the amount of tax due, the place where payment of the said amount is to he made, and the day of the posting of such notice and demand.
(b)	The Commissioners shall retain a duplicate of such notice and demand, which duplicate shall be prima facie evidence that the notice and demand were posted on the day therein set forth, and that the notice was given and the demand delivered to the taxpayer on the day on which such notice and demand would, in the ordinary course of post, have been received at the post-office where letters addressed as aforesaid would be
finally received for delivery. (c)

(c) The notice with regard to income tax shall state the amount

of the tax due.

The notice with regard to land tax shall (where the particulars of all of the land in respect of the tax on which the notice is given have in any notice of assessment already been supplied to the taxpayer) state the amount of the tax due, and where particulars of all or of portion of such land have not been already so supplied to the taxpayer the notice shall contain the particulars of so much of the said land of which particulars have not already been supplied as aforesaid and shall state the total amount of the tax due.

(d) On notice being sent containing the particulars as aforesaid, the tax shall be deemed to have been duly levied and charged under the Principal Act, the Land Tax Act of 1895, and the

Income Tax Act of 1895, notwithstanding any omission to

comply with or contravention of the provisions of those Acts, and shall be payable as hereinafter mentioned; and the notice shall be taken, for the purpose of any appeal, to be the notice referred to in the Principal Act as the " Notice of Assessment
of Land and Income Tax , " and shall he taken to confer

upon the taxpayer all rights of appeal conferred by section forty-four of the Principal Act.
(e)	The amount of the tax shall be paid within sixty days after the day on which such demand would, in the ordinary course of post, have been received at such post-office. I f the said amount is not paid within the said period, the taxpayer

shall, in addition to the amount of the tax, pay, by way of fine, a sum equal to ten per centum of the said amount,

unless it be proved by the taxpayer that such notice was not in fact received by him until a later date, in which case the

time, both as to his liability to pay the fine and as to his
rights of appeal under this or the Principal Act, shall begin

to run from the day on which the notice was actually received by him or on his behalf.
(f)	The amount of the tax, together with all fines accrued, may,
after the expiration of the said sixty days, be recovered by
the Commissioners, on behalf of Her Majesty.

5 . The Commissioners may at any time where any mistake, error,

alteration, or omission has been made in any notice given under the last preceding section (or in a notice of assessment of land tax or income

tax, or a notice purporting to he such, given before the commencement

of this Act) , or in the assessment of any income, or the assessment of any parcel of land whereon land tax is payable for the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, or the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, or the year one thousand eight hundred and

ninety-eight,

ninety-eight, send to any taxpayer an altered, amended, corrected, or additional notice, and such last-mentioned notice if it comply with the terms and provisions of the last preceding section shall he deemed to ho a notice subject to and within the terms and provisions of the last preceding section.

6. No assessment-hook in respect of land tax or income tax shall he deemed incomplete, and no notice given in respect of land tax or income tax shall he deemed invalid, hy reason of any error or omission in any such hook or in any such notice : Provided that the Commissioners have certified under their hands that such hook is complete, so far as the information at their disposal will permit.

But the Commissioners may, after certifying as aforesaid, add to the book the assessment and other prescribed particulars in respect of any land or income which may after so certifying be ascertained to be liable to land tax or income tax.
7. The assessment-book in respect of land tax shall contain particulars arranged in the prescribed manner of all lands therein described.
8. Such of the enactments of this Act as respectively amend the Land and Income Tax Assessment Act of 1895, the Land Tax Act of 3895, the Income Tax Act of 1895, and the Land and Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 1896, shall be construed Avith those Acts respectively.

9. In this Act the "Principal A c t " means the Land and Income Tax Assessment Act of 1895. This Act may be cited as the " Land and Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 1897."