HC Deb 15 December 1908 vol 198 cc1575-6
MR. HARMOOD-BANNER (Liverpool, Everton)

I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to the practice of surveyors of income-tax requiring the production of balance sheets for the assessment of income-tax in cases of private firms and private companies; whether he can state under what authority this production is required; if he is aware that their production causes anxiety to traders, inasmuch as they are sometimes placed before the local Commissioners of Taxes, who may be competitors in trade; whether he is aware that in most cases surveyors claim the right to retain these balance sheets, and decline to make the usual and proper allowances for depreciation, otherwise agreed, unless permitted to do so; and whether he will give instructions that this subject may be made a matter of inquiry, with a view to the practice being discontinued.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. LLOYD-GEORGE,) Carnarvon Boroughs

The matter referred to by the hon. Member has been the subject of several very full replies in this House, more especially those given on the 28th February, 1907, and the 19th of May, 1908, to my hon. friends the Members for the Thornbury division and for Ashton-under-Lyne, respectively, copies of which I shall be glad to send him.