§ I would like first to say this. In the new taxation proposals which I am going to make I trust the Committee will remember that the scheme I am submitting must be judged as a whole. It contains features which will, I have no doubt, be obnoxious individually in different quarters of the House, but every part of it is related to every other part, and I hope and trust that, when it is viewed in its entirety as an organic whole, the scheme will be found to be of help in the present general situation of cur affairs.
65§ Proceeding on the well-known maxim of beginning at the most unpleasant part, and putting that first, I proceed immediately to the Death Duties. The increasing yield of the Death Duties is a truer measure of the wealth of the country even than that growing yield of Income Tax and Super-tax which arises from the far-famed honesty of the British taxpayer stimulated by the equally well-known efficiency of the Inland Revenue. I propose certain additions to the rates of Estate Duty. They are not general throughout the scale. They do not affect estates of modest amount—the increases only begin after £12,500—nor do they affect estates of the greatest magnitude, the Duties on which were heavily increased in 1919 and leave no room for any alteration except in a downward direction. It is in the range of medium wealth that I propose the chief increases. The full details will be found in the White Paper which will be available when I sit down. I am only proposing to give a few specimen cases, and I hope the Committee will not press me for more, because the whole thing is better studied in print.
§ On estates between £12,500 and £18,000 where now the duty is 5 per cent. or 6 per cent. I propose an addition of 1 per cent. On estates of 40,000, where now the duty is 9 per cent., an addition of 3 per cent., bringing it to 12 per cent. On estates of £175,000, where now the duty is 17 per cent., an addition of 6 per cent., bringing it to 23 per cent. On estates of £400,000, where the duty is now 23 per cent.—as the duty rises the increase diminishes—an increase of 3 per cent., bringing it to 26 per cent. On estates of £800,000, where the duty is now 27 per cent., an addition of 2 per cent., bringing it to 29 per cent. Estates of £1,000,000 and over remain at the same extremely onerous rates as at present. The yield of this scale of Death Duties is not fixed in any way arbitrarily, but is fixed in relation to a curve or line which rises harmoniously. The yield will he £10,000,000 in a full year, and £4.500,000 in the year of its initiation. That is my proposal. I have confined' myself to stating it far the moment, but I will unfold ifs exact purposes as I proceed with my remarks.