§ 42. Sir R. BLAIRasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it is still the practice of the Inland Revenue to refund to preference shareholders in a Colonial company Colonial Income Tax at the rate of Income Tax payable in that colony when their income, which 311 is a fixed percentage on their investment, has not borne any Colonial tax; if so, how much has it cost the Exchequer in the last financial year?
Mr. YOUNGI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply which the then Chancellor of the Exchequer gave to him on this subject on the 2nd August, 1920. As indicated in that reply, this matter has been looked into again and it has now been decided that, in the case of a preference shareholder in a Dominion company, if the preference shares are entitled to a preferential dividend at a fixed rate without participating rights in any balance of distributable profits and the shareholder's dividend has been paid at the full fixed rate, no relief from United Kingdom Income Tax is to be allowed on such dividend in respect of Dominion Income Tax paid by the company, except in so far as Dominion. Income Tax is deducted from the dividend. The particulars for which my hon. Friend asks in the second part of his question are not available.