§ MR. EVERETT (Suffolk, Woodbridge)On behalf of the hon. Member for South-West Norfolk, I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that, owing to the recent decisions in the High Court (Curtis v. Old Monklands Conservative Association), trustees of charity lands are not now entitled to relief from land tax, even though the income from such lands is under £160 per annum; and, seeing that in all such cases where the income of such charity lands provides gifts in money or kind for poor persons the fact that land tax is now charged reduces such gifts, to the disadvantage of the poor, he will, at the earliest moment, take such steps as are necessary to remedy this state of affairs.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. Asquith,) Fife, E.I sympathise with the position of small charities which find a concession withdrawn, which, through a mistaken view of the law, has in fact been allowed to them for several years. On the other hand, the necessities of the individual recipients of charity have no necessary relation to the total income of the particular charities from which they receive relief. A charity with a total income 1644 of £1,000 may provide small allowances for 100 beneficiaries, while one with £150 may have to provide for only one or two. There is, therefore, it seems to me, no inequity in saying that all charities shall be treated alike, without regard to the amount of their total income, as the law (as now ascertained) says they shall be treated. Charities as such have never been exempted from land tax, and, as at present advised, I am not prepared to propose legislation on the subject.