§ COLONEL MILWARD (Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether the assessment lost by the section of the Land Tax Clauses of the Finance Act 1896 is being recovered by the Land Tax Commissioners by new assessments or increased assessments; (2) whether it is the fact that the redemption of land tax cannot possibly increase the amount payable in each parish by those who have not redeemed the tax; (3) whether his attention has been directed to the increase of the land tax in the parish of Birmingham, and to the following notice circulated by the local collector: "The increase in land tax is due to the provisions of the Finance Act 1896, which stipulates that the duty shall not be less 1022 than one penny in the pound on the gross value assessed for purposes of Income Tax (Schedule A);" and (4) whether the above statement is absolutely erroneous where no redemption is in course of progress?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.The answer to the first paragraph of my hon. Friend's Question is "No," and to the second paragraph "Yes." My attention has been directed to the case referred to in the third paragraph. I am afraid it is an instance of unwise action which has not been uncommon among those local authorities who are responsible for the assessment and collection of the land tax. The fact is that the land tax quota in Birmingham amounts to a very small fraction of a penny in the pound; and by the Act of last Session, in this and other similar cases, the tax was raised to a penny in the pound in order to provide for the automatic redemption of a tax which was exceedingly expensive to collect. The result will be that in a few years land tax will be extinguished in Birmingham.