HC Deb 15 May 1934 vol 289 cc1618-9
46. Mr. LECKIE

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amount of Income Tax allowed to be deducted from Schedule A assessments, during the last financial year of which he has particulars, in respect of repairs and maintenance of property; the assumed cost of repairs on which this remission of taxation was given; and whether he is satisfied that this amount was spent, particularly the proportion relating to property in slum areas?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

With regard to the first part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to Table 44 on page 67 of the 76th Annual Report of the Commissioners of Inland Eevenue (Command Paper No. 4456). As he is no doubt aware, the scheme of the Income Tax provides for a flat rate allowance for repairs, with a further allowance where the actual expenditure thereon, taken on a five years average, exceeds the flat rate allowance given; and it is consequently only in cases where such further allowance is claimed that the actual expenditure on repairs comes under review.

47. Lieut. - Colonel CHARLES MacANDREW (for Mr. BROCKLE-BANK)

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is considering the constitutional position as revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor-General in the statement that the Board of Inland Revenue for the year ending the last Saturday in October, 1932, granted relief on account of remissions, composition settlements, and claims abandoned of approximately £10,000,000, without the authority of this House?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

My hon. Friend would be greatly mistaken if he regarded the figure he names as representing extra statutory remission of tax that ought to have been collected. The bulk of it represents the adjustment of provisional assessments and the giving of reliefs to which the taxpayer is entitled, and the reduction of the charge in such cases, of course, represents a remission to which the taxpayer is entitled under the Statute. I think my hon. Friend may safely leave the matter to the Public Accounts Committee and rest assured that if they find anything deserving the attention of the House they will report it.

Mr. MACQUISTEN

Does not this show that the humanitarian view is taken by the tax collectors, that you cannot get blood out of a stone?