INLAND REVENUE—COLLECTION OF TAXES.—RESOLUTION. (Hansard, 28 June 1877)

§ MR. SAMPSON LLOYD,
in rising to call attention to the injustice and inconvenience occasioned by compelling private individuals to undertake the collection of Income Tax, Inhabited House Duty, and Land Tax; and to move— That the practice of imposing compulsorily on private individuals the duty of collecting Income Tax, Inhabited House Duty, and Land Tax, is unjust and inexpedient, and that Her Majesty's Government be requested to make provision for discontinuing it, said, that in many rural parishes under the present system there was no great hardship, because in them the duties were light, and in very large towns, such as Liverpool and Birmingham, where the duties were not light, the gain was considerable, and there was no difficulty in getting a regular rate or rent collector to undertake to collect these taxes. But there were cases of towns not of the first order in point of population, and suburban districts of the largest towns, which might be in a different county, and there very great hardship was felt. In these places a multitude of small sums, perhaps two or three thousand ranging from 6d. up to several shillings, had to be collected, and the poundage was quite insufficient to yield adequate remuneration. Independent gentlemen or large merchants, to whom it was the greatest possible hardship to be taken from their business, and also hard-worked tradesmen, were nominated to collect these taxes. If they declined they were fined £20, which was a large sum for a small tradesman, and if they escaped they had often, as he was informed, to pay black mail. He knew of more than one instance in which the choice of the persons nominated could be attributed to no other motive than spite or a desire to give annoyance. It often happened that with a gentleman whose responsibilities extended to many thousands of 413 pounds a colleague was associated of whom he knew nothing, who could neither read nor write, and was not even familiar with the English language. In one ease a respectable chemist was appointed, and a colleague was given him who could neither read nor write. In another a gentleman went to live in Wales; he was appointed over and over again; he could not speak Welsh, and had to travel five or six miles over a mountainous district to discharge the duties of his office. In another case a man had to leave his business for six weeks, and the total amount of poundage which he received was only 36s. 6d. In another case a man out of his own resources had to pay the Commissioners £300 in advance for money he had not got in. The manager of the North Staffordshire Railway wrote to him to say that he had been appointed to collect these small sums, he had been obliged to get another to discharge the duties, and not only had he to pay the man a large sum, but he was personally responsible if the man ran away. At Stockton a collector failed, the Government had not got his sureties' bonds signed, and therefore the sureties were not liable. The Government, instead of losing the money, re-assessed the unfortunate people who had paid the tax once, and had got a receipt for the money. Several paid the tax, others resisted, and had their goods seized, one man to the amount of £20. There were many similar cases. With respect to the land tax the trouble of collection was very much increased when such small sums as 6d. had to be collected. The main objection to the income tax was much graver than that of the trouble, annoyance, and expense. It was specially offensive to a large class that a tradesman in a suburban district should have the duty of going round and ascertaining the amount of income tax his rivals had to pay, and in that way a considerable number of persons became acquainted with the affairs of their neighbours. This was a grievance which slumbered, but he had no doubt we should hear a good deal about it before long. He did not see why a man should be compelled to collect house duty, land duty, or income tax any more than he should be compelled to clean the Foreign Office, sweep the road, and so on. All he asked was that the Government should find a 414 remedy for the grievance. There were two or three remedies which might be suggested. In the first place, the Inland Revenue might be got to collect the taxes directly by officers of its own. But that might be considered too expensive. The clerks to the Commissioners had an interest in these things, and were opposed to reform. But if they were paid by fees for work done, he knew on very good authority that the Inland Revenue Office was perfectly willing to do the work, and all that was wanted was an enactment by which the Inland Revenue Board might unite parts of divisions for taxing purposes, whether in the same county or not. He trusted the Government, having had their attention called to the reality of this grievance, would do what they could to apply a remedy.

§ MR. MUNTZ
seconded the Motion. He could bear his testimony to the fact not only that the grievance existed, but that it had, in fact, become intolerable. It was said to be a remnant of a very old system under which disagreeable impositions were practised on the people; but the older it was the greater the necessity for its removal. The evil might be remedied by compelling the collectors of poor rates to collect these taxes also, allowing them the remuneration that was now allowed to individuals in the way of poundage. Some of the collectors objected to take that course; but there was no reason why they should not be compelled to do it, or why, if it were necessary, an Act of Parliament should not be passed for the purpose. That course was already followed in several parishes, where one collector was employed to collect the poor rate, the house tax, and other taxes. In that way it was made worth the while for a respectable man to undertake the work.

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
observed, that he had very little to urge in opposition to what had been said with respect to the existing system by the Mover and Seconder of the Motion 415 before the House. He had more than once admitted the inconvenience which resulted from the present practice. Not only had he admitted it, but the inconvenience had been recognized by his Predecessors, and on former occasions attempts had been made to remove the difficulty by proposals to assign the duty of collection to the officers of the Inland Revenue. But those proposals, he was bound to say, had not been received with very great favour. In fact, they had been very strongly objected to, and it had been found impossible hitherto to get the officers of the Inland Revenue to do the work at all. The proposal that they should leave the collection where it was profitable, to those who now carried it on, in order that they might continue to receive the considerable sum which they divided by way of poundage, and that the Government should undertake the duty where the collection would be unprofitable was scarcely a fair one, and he thought a change, if made, must be a more general one; but difficulties had hitherto been found to impede any settlement. This, however, he would say, he had never given up the idea of making some change in the present practice, and he should be ready on consultation with the Inland Revenue Department to make a serious endeavour to meet the difficulty which had been mentioned, and of which he was perfectly sensible. The Government had hoped that the passing of a Valuation Bill might afford some facilities for making an improvement in the present state of things, and the matter had rather stood over in consequence; but he would undertake, on the part of the Government, to look again carefully into the subject, and see whether it was possible to adopt any reasonable plan which would avoid the difficulties of the present system.

§ MR. MUNDELLA
felt a good deal of satisfaction at what had been said by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The system complained of was made the means of extortion which rankled a good deal in the minds of those who were subjected to it. A few days ago he had put in the hands of the Secretary to the Treasury a letter from a tradesman of Sheffield who had been called upon to collect these taxes—a task which it was shown would have so occupied his time that he must in consequence neglect his own business. He asked for instructions, but was simply 416 laughed at, and was told if he paid so much money to a certain person he would get rid of the responsibility. One placed in that position had to employ persons in whom he had no confidence, and if those persons were defaulters he must make good their defalcations. It was hard that he should be asked to undertake duties with which he was not acquainted, and not be informed as to what the duties were, and that he should have to pay black mail to somebody else to do the work for him. It was a kind of extortion which ought to be subjected to some sort of punishment or rendered impossible.

§ MR. J. G. HUBBARD
reminded the House, with regard to what the Chancellor of the Exchequer had said as to the Valuation Bill being a probable medium for effecting an improvement in the present practice, that with the same object in view he had himself placed on the Notice Paper a special clause to enable the local rates and the Imperial taxes to be collected through the same channel. Consequent on that Notice many Petitions had been presented from influential local bodies in support of the proposition, and he had received letters speaking of it as likely to prove advantageous both to the public and to the Government. It was a matter of Imperial importance, and ought to be considered.

§ MR. SAMPSON LLOYD
intimated his readiness, after what had fallen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to withdraw his Motion.