§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN (Worcestershire, E.)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the cost of the Budget concession to earned incomes under £2,000 per annum is estimated to be £1,250,000.; whether this sum represents the difference between an income-tax at the rate of Is. and an income-tax at the rate of 9d. on £100,000,000 of incomes; whether the earned portions of incomes between £160 and £2.000 are estimated to amount to £200,000,000 per annum; how much of this £200,000,000 is already subject to abatement as forming part of individual incomes of less than £700 each, and is therefore excluded from the new relief; and why no provision is made in his estimate of the cost of the proposed change for the difference between a Is. and a 9d. tax on so much of the remainder of this £200,000,000 as is in excess of the £100,000,000 referred to above.
§ Mr. ASQUITHPremising that all estimates of this kind are, from the nature of the case, very largely conjectural, and that in consequence no attempt can be made to give more than very round figures, it may be said: That the earned portion of the aggregate income of persons with total incomes of from £160 to £2,000 per annum may be put at somewhat more than £200,000,000: that, of this amount, rather less than £100,000,000 is already exempt from income-tax by reason of the system of abatements, and 1441 is, therefore, in no way affected by the new measure of relief to "earned" incomes; that, in consequence, the amount of incomes affected by the new measure of relief will be in the neighbourhood of £120,000,000, which, at 3d. in the £, will mean a loss of revenue of £1,500,000; and that the figure of £1,500,000 is the estimated loss on the new relief in a full year—the estimate of £1,"250,000 being the loss that will fall within the financial year 1907–8.