HC Deb 28 March 1935 vol 299 c2161

7.35 p.m.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL

I beg to move, in page 82, line 6, to leave out "income from agricultural land" and to insert "agricultural income."

The object of the Clause is to lay down the basis for the delimitation of Federal and Provincial taxing powers and for that purpose the expression which appears in the first line of the Clause: Taxes on income other than income from agricultural land … shall be levied, etc. For the purpose of ascertaining what is agricultural land one would have to go to the definition Clause later in the Bill which states that agricultural land is land from which agricultural income is derived. Then you would have to refer to another definition to see what is "agricultural income" and a rather tortuous investigation would become necessary. It seems simpler to use the expression "agricultural income" so that the first sentence of the Clause will read: Taxes on income other than agricultural income … shall be levied and collected by the Federation. The advantage of that change is that "agricultural income" is defined in the Income Tax Act and we thus avoid all the investigation which would otherwise be necessary.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 137 ordered to stand part of the Bill.