§ MR. LUPTONTo ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, if a person has a 677 fluctuating income derived from a wasting security, such as royalties from a coal mine, and has to save half the income to make provision for the future, will Income-Tax be levied on the scale of earned or unearned income.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) Following the Select Committee, we propose to base the distinction upon the answer to the question whether the income is or is not the product of the personal exertion of the recipient. The income derived from securities clearly cannot be regarded as "earned" merely because the source from which it comes may be liable to exhaustion.