§ 51. Mr. ATTLEEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been called to a recent failure in the City of London in which the liabilities amounted to £34,864, including a claim on behalf of the Inland Revenue for unpaid Income and Super Tax, etc., amounting to £29,324, and the assets £59; will he say how long this Inland Revenue claim has been outstanding; and will he also give the total number of other unpaid demands on account of Income, Super, and Excess Profits Duty exceeding £1,000 which have been unpaid for more than three years and the total amount involved?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Major Elliot)I am of course precluded from discussing the details of particular cases, but I may say as regards the case referred to in the question that I have satisfied myself that the Inland Revenue have taken every practicable step to recover the tax which was finally found to be due. I cannot undertake to furnish the information asked for in the second part of the question. An unjustifiable expenditure of time and labour would be involved in the preparation of such a return, which, in any event, would give a wholly misleading account of the progress of collection of these taxes.
§ Mr. ATTLEEDoes it not appear from this case and other cases that a very long rope is given to some of these people, whereas other persons with much smaller means are dealt with far more severely? 2101 What is the reason for the leniency shown in cases where such large sums can be piled up?
§ Major ELLIOTOwing to the size and pressing weight of taxation, the State is practically a sleeping partner in a great number of concerns, and like other sleeping partners, it finds that its assets do not always meet the sums expected.
§ Mr. ATTLEEIs it not time they woke up?