§ Sir PHILIP MAGNUSasked whether, under the Frankfort regulations for Land Taxes, any Increment Duty is payable on 18 gifts inter vivos; and, if so, under what conditions?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe original Frankfort law of 1904 contained a provision to the effect that when a property was acquired by a gift inter vivos the tax was payable on the amount by which the donee was enriched by the gift. This provision, however, disappeared from the revised law of 1906, and section 9 of the present law runs: "The tax shall not be payable on the passing of property at death or by a gift inter vivos in the sense of the Imperial Inheritance Tax Law of June 3rd, 1906."
§ Sir PHILIP MAGNUSasked whether, in the Frankfort regulations, where an estate is sold in portions, the loss on one part may be set against the gain or profit on another part, as in Cologne, in the assessment of Increment Value Duty?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThere appears to be no provision of the kind mentioned by the hon. Member in the case of Frankfort. In the case of Cologne, the estate to which their regulations apply must be locally and economically a single and separate property, and in order that any set-off for loss may be allowed either the sales must be simultaneous or the loss must have occurred on the part of the estate within three years before a sale against which the set-off is claimed.
§ Sir PHILIP MAGNUSWhy has the Chancellor of the Exchequer taken the Frankfort regulations rather than the Cologne regulations for the tax on increment?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEHe has taken them because on the whole they are the better set of regulations.
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEHe has followed the regulations that seemed best.