HC Deb 29 April 1909 vol 4 c511

My last proposal relating to the income tax is the restriction of the exemptions and abatements to persons resident in the United Kingdom. The income of a person resident abroad only comes within the scope of the income tax in so far as it is derived from sources within the United Kingdom. Whatever may be his total actual income, his total income from all sources within the meaning of the Income Tax Acts comprises only such receipts as accrue to him from sources in this country. A foreign millionaire, who draws anything between £160 and £400 from English investments, can obtain £8 from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. If his dividends exceed £400 but do not exceed £700 he can recover a sum which varies from £7 10s. to £3 10s. in accordance with the abatement scale. If they are £701 or upwards he can recover nothing. There is reason to suppose that by far the greater part of the money paid to persons outside the United Kingdom in respect of these abatements goes to people who, if they were resident here, would not be entitled to it. The claims are, besides, from an administrative point of view, very difficult to deal with, and the difficulty will be greatly increased if my proposal to grant special abatements to the fathers and mothers of families are adopted. The claims themselves are received in the main through income tax repayment agencies, which absorb in commission a large percentage—often, I believe, as much as 50 per cent.—of the amount recovered. In these circumstances I am satisfied that the abolition of this concession, which was recommended by Lord Ritchie's Committee of 1904, will give rise to no appreciable hardship. The consequent saving to the revenue will be something like £250,000, to which must be added a considerable saving in respect of the salaries of the staff at present employed in the troublesome business of dealing with the claims. As, however, the repayments take place in a year subsequent to that in which the tax is collected, and I do not propose to make the alteration retrospective, no part of the saving will accrue to the revenue of the present year.

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