§ MR. ARCHDALE (Fermanagh, N.)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if his attention has been called to the fact that, by the new scale of pay, lieutenants employed in coastguard service are placed at a disadvantage with lieutenants of equal rank in other employment, owing to income tax being now charged on all their pay, whereas formerly visiting allowance was not subject to income tax; and will he take steps to relieve these officers of this charge.
(Answered by Mr. Arnold-Forster.) The hon. Member is evidently under a misapprehension. The visiting allowance of lieutenants appointed to the coastguard on or before the 1st of April, 1902, is not affected by the changes in the pay of senior lieutenants in the Royal Navy, and therefore these officers are in exactly the same position as formerly as regards exemption from income tax. Lieutenants appointed to the coastguard since that date will draw a reduced visiting allowance not subject to income tax, but it is not considered that they are thus placed at a disadvantage with lieutenants otherwise employed, the whole of whose pay is liable to income tax.