§ MR. CALDWELL (Glasgow, St. Rollox)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it is the case that personalty (including heritable bonds and sums secured over realty by bond or mortgage) pay a Probate Duty of 3 per cent., one-half where of goes to the relief 1507 of local taxation; whether feu duties and ground annuals pay no local taxes, and pay only a Succession Duty of 1½ per cent., no part of which goes to the relief of local taxation; whether any, and what, good reason exists why feu duties and ground annuals should not contribute towards local taxation; whether personalty (including as aforesaid) pays the full Probate Duty (3 per cant.) on the capital value, cash down, whilst feu duties and ground annuals pay the Succession Duty (1½ per cent.) only on the life interest of the party succeeding, and that by eight half-yearly instalments, the undue instalments being cancelled in the event of the predecease of the successor; and whether any, and what, good reason exists for this exceptional treatment of feu duties and ground annuals as compared with personalty?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GOSCHEN, St. George's, Hanover Square)It is impossible to deal with all the points raised by the hon. Member within the limit of an answer. His question opens up the whole relation between personality and reality, between Imperial Taxation and Local Taxation, and between taxes on the living and taxes on the dead. The hon. Membor's question is further complicated by a point in connection with permanent ground rents, which I believe to be the same as ground annuals in the phraseology of Scotch Law. But this is a subject which will possibly come within the proper investigations of the Select Committee on Town Holdings.