§ MR. HERBERT LEWIS (Flint Boroughs)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Board of Inland Revenue will ascertain whether the Commissioners of Land Tax are periodically summoned for the election of Commissioners of Income Tax; whether he is aware that in some districts the Commissioners of Income Tax are practically a self-elected body; and, whether the Board of Inland Revenue will take the necessary steps to cause the Commissioners of Land Tax to be regularly summoned at reasonable intervals for the purpose of filling up vacancies in the office of Commissioner of Income Tax?
§ * MR. HANBURYThe Commissioners of Land Tax are not summoned periodically for the election of Commissioners of Income Tax. They are summoned whenever the Board of Inland Revenue are requested by the Income Tax Commissioners to convene a meeting for the purpose of electing Income Tax Commissioners by reason of the list of these Commissioners becoming exhausted or deficient. If the Board of Inland Revenue were in any case satisfied that the list was insufficient, they would take action to have the list filled up.
§ MR. HERBERT LEWIS, asked whether it was not the case that in many parts of the country the Land Tax Commissioners were not summoned for a great number of years, and that as a matter of fact the Income Tax Commissioners were a self-elected body, and whether in these circumstances he would take the necessary steps to cause the Land Tax Commissioners to be summoned?
§ * MR. HANBURYThe Income Tax Commissioners are not a self-elected body. Certain Income Tax Commissioners are appointed by the Land Tax Commissioners for the County or Hundred. There is also a reserve list of Income Tax Commissioners who do not serve until there arc; vacancies in the original list; and whenever it is necessary to fill up the reserve list, then the Inland Revenue must summon a meeting of the Land Tax Commissioners to fill up the vacancy.