MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the income tax authorities claim from the Callan Rural District Council and the Slievedaragh Rural District Council payment of income tax on the rents receivable from labourers' cottages erected under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts; and whether, as the outlay on these cottages is a loss, or at least an unprofitable investment for the time being, and that a number of years must elapse before the invested capital is recovered and any profit can accrue, he will see that the demand for income tax will not be pressed.
§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHI understand that the Inland Revenue Department is quite prepared to admit that if, in the cases referred to, the interest paid to the Board of Works on money borrowed to build cottages exceeds the rents payable to the rural district council, the assessment to income tax may properly be limited to the ground rents payable by the council to the landlords, on whom the charge will fall. But before the Depart- 1326 ment can authorise this reduction of the assessments, they must have all the facts properly laid before the Surveyor of Taxes, and up to now the clerk to the rural district councils has failed to supply the necessary information. If he will remedy this omission, the matter can, I hope, be satisfactorily arranged.