§ SIR BALDWYN LEIGHTONasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether, in the financial arrangements of the coming year, he will take into his consideration the possibility of affording some relief in payment of income tax to tithe-owning incumbents who (being assessed under Schedule A without deduction for poor rates or collection) are paying generally on one-fifth or one-fourth more than their income, either by allowing such deductions as would be allowed in other Schedules, or by removing them from Schedule A to Schedule E, a precedent for which might be found in the transfer of railways from Schedule A to Schedule D; and, after the experience of the last financial year, he will at the same time consider the expediency of making some modifications in brewing licences, so as to extend the facilities granted to houses of£10 value to houses of£20 value, being bonâfide farmhouses, seeing that the conditions of such employers is different to the same in towns, that the present arrangement has been found inconvenient, and has added 25 per cent to the cost of a necessary article of consumption and wages?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GLADSTONE)Sir, with respect to so much of the Question as refers to tithe-owning, I think the case is one which ought to be dealt with as a tithe-owner's question, and not as a matter of detail under a Revenue Bill. The tithe-owner at present is authorized to obtain a refund of income tax for sums paid with respect to parochial rates and rent-charge. As regards col- 551 lection, that is a general question, and it cannot be allowed in that case any more than in the case of other income derived from real property. With respect to Schedule E, I do not think that that could be entertained, because the property subject to tithe-rent charge has always been treated as realty. With regard to the latter part of the Question, our experience under the Beer Act is not such as would lead us to entertain any proposal for altering the rating with regard to private brewers.