SIR MINTO FARQUHARsaid, he rose to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether he is aware that a document, headed, "The immediate payment required," calling for payment of Property and Income Taxes due at Christmas last, and suggesting the dis- 1223 charge in advance of taxes due on the 20th of March next, has been issued in certain districts in London, and by whose authority such a document has been circulated. A few days ago a very singular document with that heading was sent to him and to many other hon. Gentlemen. The body of the paper informed him that the collector had positively, under severe censure, been called upon by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue to collect all the Income and Property Taxes due up to Christmas last, and requested the person to whom the circular was addressed to send the amount to the collector's office on or before the 8th of March, or to be prepared to pay it when the collector called on a certain date after that day, as it would be impossible for him, in the time allowed, to make a second personal demand. It then expressed his readiness to receive in advance payment of the quarter due on the 20th March. He was somewhat surprised that the offer of a liberal discount did not follow this last suggestion. He had no complaint whatever to make of the manner in which the demand had been made. The tax collector of the district was a most respectable man, had been in his present position for thirty years, and asked for what he wanted so blandly that if tax paying could possibly be made an agreeable operation the collector was likely to succeed. When he (Sir Minto Farquhar) asked him whether this circular was his own idea he replied in the negative, adding that he had put it forward upon the instructions of the Local Commissioners in Red Lion Square. It appeared, then, that this year, instead of having to pay the Income Tax due on the 20th of December in the following April, they were asked to pay it immediately, and that a suggestion was given to them to pay in advance the Income and Assessed Taxes which would become due in March. Last Session his right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the taxed public paid their taxes without murmur. He doubted that they would continue to do so if the circular were acted on. The remarks being made were to the effect that the Chancellor of the Exchequer must be very "hard up," and that the exigencies of the State must be great indeed, when people were asked to pay their taxes out of the ordinary course and in advance, in order that they might be brought into account before the 31st of March.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, he was very much obliged to his hon. Friend for having mentioned the matter to the House, and for having mentioned it to him personally on the previous evening, for although he was not able to give him a full explanation of the matter, for reasons which he would tell him presently, he could tell him with precision for how much of the document the Government, and he might say, the Legislature, was responsible. In the first place, he might say that of the document as a document they knew nothing whatever. His hon. Friend was aware that under the system at present prevailing in the country the direct taxes, with a certain number of exceptional cases, to which it was not necessary to refer in detail, were assessed and levied, not under the authority of the Queen's Government, but under local and independent authorities. It was, no doubt, under the instructions, the immediate instructions, of those independent authorities that this circular had been issued. His hon. Friend, he thought very judiciously requested from one collector an explanation of the circular; and the collector, he thought with perfect propriety, said he had received it from the Secretary of the Local Commissioners in Red Lion Square. If his hon. Friend wanted accurate information, it would be necessary for the Government to do that which they had not yet been able to do—namely, ascer-certain the instructions issued by the secretary at Red Lion Square, who was a local, and not a Queen's officer. The substance of his hon. Friend's complaint was that a demand had been made on him for a quarter's income tax due on the 20th of December, instead of the collector waiting for the half-year's collection, which would be made in and from April next. The hon. Baronet was aware that so far that was a proceeding taken under instructions from the Revenue Department, those instructions being strictly in conformity with a law passed last Session. It must be in his recollection that a statement was last year made to the House as to the amount of money which it was requisite to raise by means of the income tax, and that in order to secure that amount within the proper time the method by which it was to be raised was also suggested. His hon. Friend stated with great frankness and simplicity, and in a manner that must command the sympathy of every man in that House, that it was not agreeable to 1225 be called on for payment of a quarter's income tax three months earlier than usual. The alternative was not, however, whether the tax should be collected a quarter earlier or a quarter later. What was wanted was a sum equal to 7½d. in the pound income tax. The 7½d. might have been collected in one half-yearly payment or in three quarterly payments, but the mode of three quarterly payments was the one adopted; and, though it was not agreeable to pay in January instead of in April, yet it was certainly more agreeable to pay in January than in the previous August. As to the courteous invitation of the collector to whom the hon. Member referred to pay the fourth quarter in advance, he begged to disclaim all responsibility for that act. He knew nothing whatever of the matter; neither was anything known of it at Somerset House. The collection of the Queen's taxes in advance would be contrary to the order of proceedings, and to the spirit of the financial arrangements of that House. He regretted that such a suggestion should have been made by any local officer, as it could only tend to confusion. His conjecture was that the collector, in this instance, had adopted a practice which was sometimes pursued for the purpose of saving trouble in regard to the collection of local taxes in London. He had had applications for the payment of poor rate in the same way, the collector intimating that he was ready to receive what was in reality not due. It was quite possible, therefore, that the collector of the income tax had made his application in perfect good faith; but he would promise that the matter should be inquired into.