§ MR. HAYDEN (Roscommon, S.)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether income-tax is demanded from occupiers of land in Ireland who have purchased their holdings under the Land Purchase Acts; whether such demand is also made from persons who have entered into agreements to purchase but whose purchase is not yet complete; whether at the same time income-tax is collected from the landlords on account of the interest payable to them under such agreements and from the former landlords on the income derived from the amount of the purchase money; and whether, seeing that under these circumstances double the amount of income-tax 1360 formerly collected from the land of Ireland is now claimed by the Inland Revenue, and that, in view of the long term of repayment, there is no material difference between annuity and rent, he will consider the advisability of putting a stop to these demands upon the occupying owners of farms in Ireland.
§ MR. ASQUITHThere is no double assessment on income derived from land in Ireland, the ordinary machinery of deduction provided by the Income-Tax Acts operating to prevent it. It may, however, be observed that occupiers of land in Ireland, who purchase their holdings under the Land Purchase Acts, will in the vast majority of cases be exempt from income-tax, as only a small percentage are likely to have total incomes exceeding £160 per annum.