§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That Income Tax shall be charged for the year beginning the sixth day of April, nineteen hundred and twelve, at the rate of one shilling and twopence in the pound, and that the same Super-tax be charged for that year as was charged for the year beginning the sixth day of April, nineteen hundred and eleven."—[Mr. Masterman.]
§ Mr. POLLOCKI desire to ask the hon. Gentleman whether he has considered a question which has often been raised in this House, and which has been discussed and favourably considered by a predecessor of the hon. Gentleman in office. The question to which I refer is whether any allowance can be made on the Income Tax charged in respect of wasting assets. I do not wish to detain the House now on this subject as this is not a suitable opportunity, but I am anxious to know if the hon. Gentleman has taken the question into consideration. His penultimate predecessor was disposed to consider this matter favourably. He indicated that he thought we had made out a case in respect of wasting assets which were entirely exhausted by the work which produced the profit on which the income was levied. Take, for instance, the case of nitrate companies which have registered addresses over here, and in which the capital is laid out for the purpose of getting a certain quantity of nitrates, which is easily ascertained, and in respect of which the source from which the profit is made is exhausted in a very few and quite ascertainable number of years. It is not fair to the hon. Gentleman to ask now for any definite reply, but I call his attention to the matter chiefly for the reason that the present Chancellor of the Duchy thought we had made out a case. I am only asking for very limited relief. I am not asking for relief in the case of all wasting assets, as they are commonly called; I am not asking for relief in the case of leases nor of ordinary coal mines; I simply ask for relief in the case of gravel or nitrate beds. The present system prevents the companies being registered here and there has been a good deal of loss in consequence of the system on which we levy the Income Tax on those wasting assets. I enter a protest against the present system in order that it may be more fully discussed when we have the opportunity of discussing the Income Tax or on the occasion when the Bill is introduced, 1132 when I will endeavour by means of a new Clause, if it is not in it already, to bring the matter to the attention of the Treasury. In the meantime I ask the Financial Secretary to look into it, and I hope he may give it that favourable consideration which the present Chancellor of the Duchy extended to it. I raise the question not for the purpose of trying to get rid of Income Tax, but for the purpose of saving a source of income to this country which is being driven out of it in connection with these wasting assets.
§ Question put, and agreed to.