§ 56. Mr. GOULDasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can give any estimate of the contingent liability of the Treasury for claims for repayment of Excess Profits Duty; whether his Budget 248 estimate of the expected yield of this duty is in any way affected by the present industrial depression; and whether the continuance and increase of this tax is largely responsible for the increasing unemployment amongst the working classes?
§ Mr. BALDWINIt has been a principle of the Excess Profits Duty throughout its life that when in any accounting period a deficiency of profit is sustained by a business, as compared with its standard of profit, the trader may claim a repayment out of the Excess Profits Duty previously paid by him, or a set-off against Excess Profits Duty subsequently payable. The amount of the repayment or set-off is equivalent, not to the amount of the deficiency, as has been recently suggested, but to a percentage thereof, the percentage being the same as the percentage rate of Excess Profits Duty in force in the period in which the deficiency is sustained. The experience of past years suggests that the cost to the Exchequer of this provision to be anticipated during the current financial year will approximate to £22,000,000. The cost is taken into account in all estimates of the net Exchequer receipt of Excess Profits Duty. Of course, if a long period of industrial depression were to set in, the future yield of all direct taxes, including the Excess Profits Duty, would be adversely affected.
§ Mr. BILLINGIs the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the Excess Profits Duty is just the thing that is going to produce industrial depression?