HC Deb 03 June 1918 vol 106 cc1335-6

(1)Section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1914 (Session 2) (which gives relief in respect of diminution of income due to war), shall apply to Income Tax (including Super-tax) for the current Income Tax year, but with the substitution, as regards postponed Super-tax, of the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty, for the first day of January, nineteen hundred and sixteen, as the date on which the postponed Super-tax is to become payable.

(2)Any payment of Super-tax for any year (hereinafter referred to as the year of charge) which has been postponed under Section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1914 (Session 2), as continued by Section twenty of the Finance Act, 1915, Section twenty-eight of the Finance Act, 1916, and Section twelve of the Finance Act, 1917, or which has been postponed and further postponed under those Sections may be further postponed until the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty, if the individual from whom the payment is due proves to the satisfaction of the Special Commissioners that his actual income from all sources for the current Income Tax year is or will be less than two-thirds of the income on which he was liable to be charged to Super-tax for the year of charge.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."

Sir A. WILLIAMSON

Can the Financial Secretary to the Treasury tell us what is the meaning of the words "actual income"? Do the Government mean a man's statutory income or his real income? The words are indefinite, and it is very desirable before we pass this Clause that we should know exactly what is the meaning of the words "actual income." I per haps ought to have given notice that I in tended to ask this question, and I apologise for not having done so, but I did mention it on the Second Reading of the Bill when the Chancellor of the Exchequer was in his place, and I did not receive any answer.

Mr. BALDWIN

The income of the actual year is calculated according to Income Tax rules.

Sir A. WILLIAMSON

That is the statutory income?