Mr. CHANCELLORasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the amounts by which the principal value of property passing at death was increased by the official valuation beyond the figures brought in by the accounting parties during the financial year 1910–11, and during the first six months of the current financial year respectively, and the extra amounts received in additional duty by the Exchequer as a result of the official valuation during the two periods named; whether such amounts are anywhere shown in official Returns; and, if not, whether arrangements can be made to separate them in future, and place them to the credit of the valuation department, in addition to the Land Value Duties, thus showing the actual value of the service rendered by that department to the public revenue?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe exact information desired by my hon. Friend is not at present available, but it will probably serve his purposes if I inform him that from the commencement of the official valuation up to the 31st October, 1911, the net amount by which the principal value of real and leasehold property passing on death was increased by the official valuation beyond the figures brought in by the accounting persons was £6,460,007. The additional Death Duties ascribable to this increase of value, and estimated upon the basis of average rates, was £485,000. Only a part of these additional duties would have been secured under the conditions that obtained before the creation of the special valuation staff. Information as to the increase in the amount of the principal value of property passing on death due to the official valuation is given in the 53rd and 54th Reports of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, page 11 and page 162 respectively, and the particulars for the current year will, I am informed, appear in their next Report.