§ Mr. CHURCHILLThere are a number of minor points affecting the Inland Revenue duties which will form the subject of proposals in the Finance Bill. I will only mention the most important. The burden of the Companies' Capital Duty and the Transfer Duty—each duty is charged at 21 per cent.—constitutes in the opinion of His Majesty's Government an undue obstacle to the healthy amalgamation and reconstruction of companies. I propose to introduce a relief from these duties on the lines recently recommended by the Committee which surveyed necessary Amendments in the Companies Acts. This relief will take effect from the date of the passing of the Finance Act of 1927 into law.
§ Mr. CHURCHILLNo. I shall propose to improve the machinery of the law to enable the Income Tax to be effectively recovered in respect of the copyright payments made to non-resident playwrights, authors and the like. I shall also put forward proposals to amend last year's legislation concerning the preceding year basis for Income Tax, Schedule D. These proposals will be designed, in part, to correct small techincal inaccuracies which have been discovered, and in part to meet representations which were made during last year's financial discussions in regard to hardships in certain respects which the proposals then enacted entailed. I shall propose also to amend the machinery for the collection of Income Tax on certain payments of interest made under deduction of tax, with consequential effects on the Crown rights in winding up and bankruptcy proceedings.
Finally, in this interlude I must mention a change in regard to the taxation of motor vehicles used solely for agricultural purposes, which also calls for a Resolution of the Committee. Owing to a difference of interpretation by the Courts in England and Scotland, motor lorries used solely in agriculture are taxed in Scotland as commercial vehicles and in England as locomotives. It is proposed to assimilate the practice of the two countries, making the reduced rates apply in both in the case of vehicles owned by farmers and used by them solely in connection with the cultivation of their land. I trust this will be accepted as a satisfactory solution by the farming community.