§ MR. CLOUGH (Yorkshire, W.R., Skipton)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the amount of nett income that he receives from the land tax; whether the land tax is imposed upon the whole of the land in the United Kingdom; what is the valuation of that land and when was the valuation made; 2075 what jurisdiction the Land Commissioners have with regard to this tax, and whether they can decrease or increase the rate of the land tax; in what year the land tax was first instituted; whether it then applied to the whole of the land in the United Kingdom; how the valuation was arrived at upon which it was imposed; what was the rate per cent. upon that valuation; and what year was the highest revenue ever received from this tax and what did it amount to.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) The net receipt of land tax for 1907–8 was £710,000. All land in Great Britain (there is no land tax in Ireland) is liable to land tax except where the tax has been redeemed and except in certain cases of land belonging to charities prior to 1693, and of property in the occupation of the Crown prior to 1798. The valuation varies from year to year, but as a rule the gross assessment under income-tax, Schedule A, is taken. The duty of the Land Tax Commissioners is to fix the assessment and to raise the tax due under the quota for each parish by an equal £ rate. By the Finance Act of 1896 the highest £ rate was fixed at 1s. and the lowest at Id. The land tax was instituted in 1692. In that year it applied to England and Wales only; in 1707 it was made applicable to Scotland, but there had been a land tax or "cess" in the latter country prior to the Act of Union, subject to the exemptions which I have mentioned above. The rate by 4 Will, and Mary, c. 1 (1692), was 4s. in the £ on real estate assessed on the bona fide rack rent, and on personal estate 24s. per £100, or 4s. in the £ on £6 (the then legal rate of interest). The personal property to be rated was ready money, debts due, goods, wares, merchandise, or other chattels, or any personal estate in the realm. Stock on land and household goods were exempted. The highest revenue received from the tax was in the years 1760–5, when it amounted to £2,037,854 in each year. I may also refer my hon. friend to the 1st, 13th, 28th, 29th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, and 45th Reports of the Board of Inland Revenue.