§ Sir FREDERICK BANBURYasked whether in France there is any Income Tax payable on French Rentes or any French or foreign Government securities; and whether Income Tax in France is payable by the individual on profits on trade or on professional earnings?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEI believe that the French dividend tax does not apply to French Rentes or to any French or foreign Government securities, but falls on the dividends and interest of all companies or enterprises, financial, industrial, commercial or civil, and also on the interest of loans of departments, communes, etc. There is no Income Tax at present in France in the strict British sense of the term, but as I explained to the hon. Member for Aston Manor on the 28th instant, there are several direct taxes which correspond generally with our income tax. The existing taxes fall upon the trader and professional man either through the ImpÔt Foncier if he owns land; through the dividend tax; or through the patentes tax, which is an annual duty on the exercise of a profession or trade graduated according to size of town, rent of premises, number of employés, etc. It has been calculated that this latter tax represents an average rate of about 3 per cent. on the revenue derived from the exercise of the profession in question.
§ Sir F. BANBURYMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether it is not a fact that a millionaire in France, the whole of whose money is invested in French Rentes, pays no Income Tax of any sort whatever?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEYes, according to the answer I have given I think that is so.