§ MR. WADSWORTH (Yorkshire, W.R., Hallamshire)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Yorkshire Miners' Association have ever been charged income-tax on the interest paid to them by their bankers on deposits previous to the present year; why income-tax is demanded on their interest this year; and whether trade unions, registered under the Trade Union Acts, and whose funds are available for bene- 1454 volent benefits such as death claims, are properly liable for income-tax.
§ (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The exemption from income-tax granted to trade unions by the Trade Union (Provident Funds) Act, 1893, is confined to interest and dividends "applicable and applied solely for the purpose of provident benefits." The Yorkshire Miners' Association is accordingly chargeable on any part of its income which cannot be shown to be so applied. I understand that it is owing to an oversight that no assessment has hitherto been made upon the association.