§ I come to Inland Revenue. I put Inland Revenue on the existing basis of taxation at a total of £390,000,000, made up as follows; Income Tax, £240,000,000; Surtax, £51,000,000; Death Duties, £75,000,000; Stamps, £21,000,000; and Land Tax and arrears of Excess Profits Duty and Corporation Profits Tax, £3,000,000. In putting the Income Tax at £240,000,000, I am estimating that I shall receive less than I did last year by no less than £11,500,000. Unfortunately, the returns with which traders are good enough to furnish me show that the profits of 1932 on which the assessments will be made, were considerably less than they were the year before, and, in addition to that, we have also to take into account the effect of the loss of tax brought about by the Conversion, which, of course, means a smaller amount of interest.
§ I call the figure of £51,000,000, which I have estimated for Surtax, depressingly low. Hon. Members, no doubt, are aware that the collection of Surtax lags a year behind that of Income Tax. It is levied for this year upon the statutory income of 1932, which, generally speaking, represents the interest and dividends of 1932, and the profits and salaries of 1931. I must, therefore, anticipate a further shrinkage below the receipts of last year, which were then about £5,000,000 lower than I estimated, and £16,000,000 below the amount received in the previous year. By putting Death Duties at £75,000,000, I have taken account of the fact that we have a higher level of values for securities, but against that I have to set the fact that last year's yield contained an element of windfall. Stamps at £21,000,000 mean that I have put the increase over last year at the same amount as the increase of last year over the year before.
§ The remaining items give me a revenue of £41,730.000. Motor Vehicle Duties I estimate to be unchanged at £5,000,000, and Crown Lands revenue, a trifle 44 changed, at £1,230,000. Sundry Loans and Miscellaneous Revenue are slightly better at £3,800,000 and £20,000,000 respectively, and the Post Office receipts are unchanged at £11,700,000. That figure for the Post Office exceeds the actual receipts for 1932 by £800,000, but that is accounted for because we expect extra revenue from telephones and wireless. I take this opportunity of making an allusion to the report of the Bridge-man Committee. It has already been announced that the Government have accepted in principle the recommendations of that committee, and the Finance Bill will give effect to that decision in such a way that the first payment will be made to the Post Office Fund in 1934. The Bridgeman formula has been simplified, but we expect that the financial effect will, in the long run, be unaltered, so that I shall have to budget for receipts in 1934 of £10,750,000, provided, of course, other things remain the same. Adding together the items I have mentioned, we get a total estimated revenue on the existing basis for 1933–34 of £712,730,000.