MR. PARKER SMITHI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the rate of 938 depreciation allowed on steam and sailing ships by the Income Tax Commissioners varies in different ports, and even in different districts of the same port, and in particular that the rate for steamships stands at seven and a-half per cent. in the city parish of Glasgow, but has recently been reduced in the lower ward of Lanarkshire; and whether he proposes to take any steps to secure uniformity of assessment on competing shipowners in different parts of the country?
§ SIR JOHN HIBBERTThis is a matter which is under consideration. I agree with my hon. Friend that uniformity is most desirable. The Board of Inland Revenue will use every effort to obtain it, but I must remind my hon. Friend that the matter is one in which neither the Treasury nor the Board have any jurisdiction, the authority to decide it being vested by law in the District Commissioners, subject to an appeal to the High Court on questions of law.
§ SIR JOHN HIBBERTIt is entirely in the hands of the District Commissioners.
§ MR. W. F. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)Is it not a fact that at Liverpool iron sailing ships are allowed only 3 per cent. depreciation, as againt 5 per cent. at London and Glasgow, and that a similar discrepancy exists in the rates on steamers to the disadvantage of Liverpool as compared with rates in Dundee and Newcastle?
§ SIR JOHN HIBBERTWhat the hon. Member has stated is quite correct. The information I have received is, that these different rates are in use at Liverpool and other places. At the same time, I must inform him that the question rests entirely with the District Commissioners; and it is only through them that a change can be made. It cannot be made through the Inland Revenue.
MR. PARKER SMITHI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been drawn to the recent decision of the Exchequer Division of the High Court in Edinburgh declaring that, under the existing Law, no allowance in respect of depreciation for Income Tax could be made on account of a ship becoming obsolete and ceasing 939 to be profitable; and what steps he proposes to take, either by legislation or otherwise, to amend this taxation of unprofitable ships?
§ SIR JOHN HIBBERTThe decision of the Exchequer Division of the Court in Edinburgh simply maintains with regard to ships the principle of allowance for depreciation which the Income Tax laws have laid down with regard to plant and machinery generally. That principle seems to me a fair one. My hon. Friend is in error in speaking of the taxation of unprofitable ships. The tax is on profits, and where a ship is earning no profits there is nothing to be taxed.