This period having elapsed, the remaining relatives of the victim shall only have action to recover their part against the relatives who may have received the indemnity.

In every case, the employer shall be exempt from responsibility after the lapse of two years counting from the death of the worker. Article 113. In case of accident or occupational disease which may cause absolute and permanent disability to work, the victim shall have the right to an indemnity equivalent to two years' wages. This indemnity in no case shall exceed 15,000 bolivares, whatever may have been the amount of the wage.

Article 114. In case of occupational accident or disease which may cause absolute and temporary disability to work, the victim of the accident shall have the right to an indemnity equal to the corresponding wage for the days during which the disability may have lasted. This indemnity in no case shall exceed the wage corresponding to six months.

Article 115. In case of accident or occupational disease which may cause partial and permanent disability the victim of the accident shall have the right to an indemnity which shall be fixed taking into account the wage and the reduction in earning capacity caused by the accident in accordance to the regulations (reglamento) to the law. This indemnity in no case shall exceed one year's wage, nor the sum of 10,000 bolivares, whatever may be the amount of the wage.

Article 116. If the disease or the accident should cause partial and temporary disability, the victim shall have the right to an indemnity which shall be fixed taking into account the wage, the reduction in earning capacity caused by the accident, and the days during which the disability lasts, in accordance to the regulations (reglamento) to this law. This indemnity in no case shall exceed the total wage for six months.

Article 117. The wage which shall serve as a base for calculating the indemnities which must be paid in conformity to the preceding articles, shall be the rate (tipo) of wage which the victim would have had the right of collecting the day on which the occupational accident or illness occurred.

Lapses established in the said articles shall be counted by continuous days (dias continuos), without exception.

Article 118. The Federal executive in providing for regulations to put this law into effect (al reglamentar) or through special Resolutions, shall establish the rules for determining the class and grade of the disabilities produced by the occupational accidents and illnesses, and the corresponding indemnities within the limits established in this Title. While such Regulatory legislation is not in effect, the determination (of class and grade of disabilities) shall be made by experts in conformity to the rules of medical science. Article 119. Victims of labor accidents and of occupational diseases shall have in addition the right of medical, surgical, and pharmaceutical attention, which may be necessary as the result of such accidents or diseases.

In case of death, the employer shall be required to defray expenses of interment, which shall be in proportion to the condition of the victim and local usage. These expenses shall not exceed in any case 300 bolivares.

Expenses of interment and medical, surgical and pharmaceutical attention shall not be deducted from the indemnities which must be paid in conformity to the preceding articles.

Article 120. In case enterprises or exploiting industries (explotaciones) responsible in industrial accidents or diseases have hospitals, clinics or analagous establishments declared adequate by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (Ministerio de Sanidad y Asistencia Social) to render medical, pharmaceutical, and surgical attention, as referred to in the preceding article, such enterprises shall have the right by which such referred to attention shall be rendered in their establishments and those injured shall not require that this attention be given in another place.

Article 121. If the victims of occupational accidents and illnesses should refuse reiteratedly to submit to the dispositions, regimes and treatments which the physicians in attendance prescribe, the enterprise shall be exempt from responsibility as respects medical, surgical, and pharmaceutical attention.

Article 122. In the case anticipated in the foregoing article, the indemnities established by preceding articles shall be calculated taking into account the class, grade, and duration which the disability would have had if the referred to dispositions, regimes and treatments had been complied with.

Article 123.

Nonoccupational diseases which may be contracted by reason of residence in places where work is carried on and which constitute endemias prevailing in such places, such as malari a (paludismo), ankylostomiasis, and others, do not give the right to any indemnity, but (do give the right) to surgical and pharmaceutical and medical attention in hospitals, clinics, or establishments referred to in article 120.

Article 124. Occupational illnesses and poisonings shall be considered those produced by the substances which the Federal Executive shall specify in Regulatory provisions (al reglamentar) to the present law, or through special resolutions, when they have been acquired by workers, employees, or apprentices who work in industries in which such substances are made or employed.

Article 125. When the worker is not able to perform his original work, but can do any other, the employer is required to provide it to him, in case such is possible, and for this objective is empowered to make such transfers of personnel as may be necessary.

Article 126. The system of indemnities for occupational risks established in the present title shall be regulated by the Federal Executive on the establishment of the obligatory social insurance in conformity to the following title.

Title V

As to Obligatory Social Insurance

Article 127. The Federal Executive for the protection of employees and laborers in case of occupational risks, shall institute obligatory social insurance at the expense of the employer through organizations and entities which may be legally operating in the country.

Article 128. The insuring entity shall be required to be responsible for the total payment of the indemnities, income rentas) or pensions which rightly correspond, in which case the employer shall be relieved of his responsibility for the respective risk.

Article 129.

The right to medical, surgical and pharmaceutical attention discussed in this chapter includes the right to the proper food during the time of treatment.

Article 130. Social insurance shall be extended also to invalidism, maternity, old age, and death not produced by accidents or occupational diseases. In these cases, the insurance shall be provided by the contributions (cotizaciones) of the assured, those of the employers and the subventions of the State.

Article 131. The employer shall deduct the contribution (cotizacion) corresponding to the worker in the insurance in order to pay it directly to the insuring entity.

SPECIAL BULLETIN

The attention of readers of COMPARATIVE LAW SERIES is called to the following despatch received from the Office of the American Commercial Attaché, Panama:

By Executive Decree dated April 5, 1939, cancellation of new Panamaian Income Tax Law (Law 62 of 1938) and continuance of the Fondo Obero taxation was made effective by the President of the Republic.

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The effect of the above-mentioned decree is to revoke entire law referred to, a discussion of which appeared in the April issue of COMPARATIVE LAW SERIES under the title "Income Tax Law of Panama."

In the expository paragraphs of the revoking decree, it is explained that under Law 62 of 1938 the taxable year is 1939 so that taxes would not be collectable until 1940 and the present financial position of the Government does not warrant its being deprived of this source of revenue. Because of the practical difficulty encountered and the many protests voiced in connection with the Government's efforts to administer the law, the President utilized his extra-ordinary powers in fiscal matters to abrogate it.

INCOME

ΤΑΧΑΤΙΟΝ IN BRITISH

WEST

INDIES

By J. H. Barkmeier, Division of Commercial Laws

British Guiana, British Honduras and all the colonies of the British West Indies, with the exception of Bermuda and the Bahama Islands, levy an income tax both on individuals and companies. Bermuda and Bahama Islands do not levy any form of income taxation either upon companies or individuals.

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BRITISH GUIANA

Income tax is levied in British Guiana under Income Tax Ordinance No. 17 of 1929, as amended. The tax is payable upon the income of any person accruing in, derived from, or received in, the colony in respect of; gains or profits from any trade, business, profession or vocation; gains or profits from any employment, including the estimated annual value of any quarters or board or any other allowance granted in respect of employment whether in money or otherwise; dividends, interest or discounts; any pension, charge or annuity; and rents, royalties, premiums and other profits arising from property.

For the purpose of ascertaining the chargeable income of any person there may be deducted all outgoings and expenses wholly and exclusively incurred during the year immediately preceding the year of assessment in the production of the income, including: interest payable on borrowed capital employed in acquiring the income; rent payable by any tenant of land or buildings occupied by him for the purpose of acquiring the income; allowances for obsolescence, depreciation and repairs; bad debts; rates and taxes on immovable property, but not including income tax; premiums paid on any fire insurance policy on property used in acquiring the income; et cetera.

An individual resident in the Colony is allowed a deduction of $720, with additional deductions of $480 for wife, $240 for the first child and $180 for each additional child. These deductions are allowed in the case of individual non-resident British subjects, with certain limitations. The deductions for children are allowed when they are under the age of sixteen years, or receiving full time instruction in an educational establishment.

Tax Rates. The tax upon the chargeable income of every person other than a company is charged at the following rates:

The tax upon a company other than a life insurance company is levied at the rate of 12 percent of the chargeable income.

The tax upon a life insurance company is charged at the rate of 5 percent of its chargeable income. Special provisions are contained in the ordinance for the determination of the chargeable income of insurance companies which will be supplied upon request to the Division of Commercial Laws.

Deduction of Tax from Dividends of Companies. Every company which is registered in the Colony is entitled to deduct from the amount of any dividend paid to any shareholder tax at the rate paid or payable by the company (as reduced by any relief granted in respect of United Kingdom or Empire Income Tax) on the income out of which such dividend is paid, provided that where tax is not paid or payable by the company on the whole income out of which the dividend is paid the deduction shall be restricted to that portion of the dividend which is paid out of income on which tax is paid or payable by the company. The company upon payment of a dividend is required to furnish each shareholder with a certificate setting forth the amount of the dividend paid to that shareholder and the amount of the tax which the company has deducted. When such dividend is included in the chargeable income of the shareholder, the tax deducted may be set off against the tax on the income of such shareholder.

Temporary Residents. Tax is not payable in respect of any income arising out of the colony and received therein by any person, who is in the Colony for some temporary purpose only and not with intent to establish his residence therein and who has not actually resided in the Colony at one or more times for a period equal in the whole to six months in the year preceding the year of assessment.

Chargeability of Agent of Nonresident. Section 28 of the Income

Tax Ordinance reads as follows:

(1) A person not resident in the Colony (hereinafter in this section referred to as a nonresident person), whether a British subject or not, shall be assessable and chargeable in the name of his trustee, guardian, or committee, or of any attorney, factor, agent, receiver, branch, or manager whether such attorney, factor, agent, receiver, branch, or manager has the receipt of the income or not, in like manner and to the like amount as such nonresident person would be assessed and charged if he were resident in the Colony and in the actual receipt of such income.

(2) A nonresident person shall be assessable and chargeable in respect of any income arising, whether directly or indirectly through or from any attorney ship, factorship, agency, receivership, branch, or management and shall be so assessable and chargeable in the name of the attorney, factor, agent, receiver, branch, or manager.

or

(3) Where a nonresident person, not being a British subject, a firm or company whose place of business is situated in His Majesty's Dominions or in territory under His Majesty's protection or a branch thereof, carries on business with a resident person, and it appears to the Commissioner that owing to the close connection between the resident person, and the nonresident person and to the substantial control exercised by the nonresident person over the resident person, the course of business between those persons can be so arranged and is SO arranged, that the business done by the resident person in pursuance of his connection with the nonresident person produces to the resident person either no profits or less than the ordinary profits which might be expected to arise from that business, the nonresident person shall be assessable and chargeable to tax in the name of the resident person as if the resident person were an agent of the nonresident person.

(4) Where it appears to the Commissioner by whom the assessment is made, or to the judge by whom an appeal is heard, that the true amount of the gains or profits of any nonresident person chargeable

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