§ MAJOR RASCHI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether a notice, sent by the surveyor of taxes, Chelmsford district, to certain clergy of the diocese of St. Albans, stating that they are to be charged with income tax on donations received from the St. Albans poor benefices fund, has his sanction; and, if so, whether, considering the distress which such gifts are intended to relieve, and the inability of the Government to extend to them the relief from taxation provided under the Rating Act, the Government will reconsider the matter, in order that no such additional burden be laid on the rural clergy?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERThe grants from the St. Albans diocesan fund being made in augmentation of the stipend of the benefice are chargeable with income tax, subject to any relief to which the incumbent for the time being may be entitled by reason of his total income falling below 842 the limits within which exemption or abatement is allowed. I cannot specially exempt the clergy who participate in the benefits of this fund from income tax on part of their incomes, but I should think that clergy receiving such grants would in all probability be entitled to the exemptions and abatements applicable to income taxpayers generally.