§ MR. BILL (Staffordshire, Leek)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that Land Tax has been improperly collected in Staffordshire from many persons, chiefly small landowners, whose incomes entitle them to total exemption, and whether he will issue general instructions to collectors to forbid their claiming land tax from persons on whom no demand for income tax has been made, and who are therefore presumably entitled to relief?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERInstructions have from the first been issued with a view to avoiding as far as possible unnecessary applications for the payment of land tax assessed upon properties the owners of which, having been allowed exemption or abatement of income tux, are known to be entitled to relief under the 12th section of the Finance Act, 1898. There are, no doubt, cases in which the information possessed by the surveyors of taxes is not sufficient to enable the charges to be remitted without application from the owners of the properties. In such cases it must be left to the persons who consider themselves to be entitled to relief to prefer their claims in the manner prescribed by the Act. I have no reason to suppose that the circumstances in Staffordshire differ from those in other parts of the country.