HC Deb 29 April 1909 vol 4 cc528-9

The case of clubs remains to be dealt with. The sale of intoxicating liquor in a club is not legally "sale," but "supply," and this method of distribution is under the present law entirely untaxed. Clubs in which liquor is supplied, at present compete to a large extent directly with the ordinary public-house, and this competition of an alternative and untaxed method of distribution is not only unfair to the holders of publican's licences, but likely, in the long run, seriously to encroach on the revenue derived from licence duties. In some cases, particularly where licences have been suppressed under the Act of 1904, clubs have sprung up which are mere public-houses in disguise, some of them financed by the very persons who have received compensation for the trade supposed to be lost by the withdrawal of the licence, but really transferred, with the added privilege of exemption from licence duty, to the house in which the club has been established. A scheme of licence duties for clubs, however, based upon annual value, would be both inequitable and impracticable. The better class of club, from whatever social rank its members may be drawn, possesses, as a rule, much better premises than a club which is mainly a drinking club. A tax upon annual value would, therefore, in all probability, vary almost inversely with the amount of liquor consumed, and it would penalise a club for increasing its accommodation for other than drinking purposes. I therefore propose that the duty should take the form of a poundage upon the amount of the receipts from the sale of liquor. Under this proposal clubs will not be licensed, that is to say they will not be put in the same position as licensed premises; but an obligation will be imposed upon them to keep an account of the receipts from the sale of liquor, and a duty of three-pence in the £ will be imposed on every £ of those receipts. The effect will be that clubs will not be taxed as clubs, but will simply be taxed as drinking clubs.