§ Mr. STEEL-MAITLANDasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any answers were sent by the Board of Inland Revenue to the sixteen bodies of local commissioners who suggested that demand notes for the payment of Income Tax should be sent out with a notice affixed stating that the note was to be taken by way of request for voluntary payment only; and, if so, what was the tenour of the replies, and would he lay the correspondence upon the Table; and whether, in pursuance of his desire to facilitate the voluntary collection of the Income Tax, he instructed the Board of Inland Revenue to communicate the suggestion to the other 724 bodies of local commissioners, not for the purpose of interfering with the exercise of their discretion, but for their information?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGEThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. In my answer of the 18th instant, I have already indicated the tenour of the Inland Revenue replies in question, and I am unable to adopt the suggestion contained in the second part to lay the correspondence upon the Table. The answer to the third part is in the negative.
§ Mr. STEEL-MAITLANDCan the right hon. Gentleman give some more explicit information as regards the tenour of the replies to which he refers?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGEI do not think it is desirable that the correspondence between the Inland Revenue and the Local Commissioners should be made public; in fact, I think it would be very undesirable, as the hon. Member will probably realise.