§ 27. Mr. P. WHITEasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, having regard to the fact that tenants who have purchased their farms under the Land Acts are paying an annuity averaging about 22 per cent. less than their former judicial rents, he will equalise the incidence of taxation under the proposed Income Tax in the Budget and allow farmers who have not purchased to pay on a basis of 22 percent, under second-term judicial rents?
§ Mr. McKENNAWhere a rent less than the Poor Law valuation is paid the assessment under Schedule B will follow that rent, unless it can be shown that such rent is in excess of the annual rent at which the farm is worth to be let from year to year.
§ Mr. WHITEWill the right hon. Gentleman introduce legislation to give the farmer or occupier of land the right to deduct from the rent a proportional part of the Income Tax?
§ Mr. McKENNAIf I understand the question aright, the occupier has that, power now.
§ 51. Mr. DUNDAS WHITEasked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been directed to the manner in which the present system of Income Tax under Schedules A and B facilitates the unproductive retention of land and penalises building and the making of improvements, and to the fact that these results, aggravated by the recent and the proposed increase of that taxation, are largely responsible for the difficulties in obtaining land, the check to building, and the increase of house rent; whether it is proposed to appoint a Committee on the Income Tax at the end of the War; and, if so, whether that Committee will be directed specially to consider the advisability of substituting for the taxation of income derived from landed property under these schedules a tax on a suitable percentage of the capital value of the land apart from buildings and other improvements at a rate which will produce the same revenue?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI have received some representations to the effect suggested in the first part of my hon. Friend's question. As regards the second and third parts of the question, the proposal to appoint a Committee at the end of the War still holds good. It would be premature to define the terms of reference.