HC Deb 26 April 1938 vol 335 cc25-6
47. Mr. Thurtle

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that in Germany a citizen who successfully obtains exemption from given taxation on some point of law may yet be compelled to pay on the ground that it is equitable, if not legal, that he should pay; and if, in view of the difficulty of creating completely effective legal safeguards against tax evasion, he will take steps to alter the law in this country in order that, in appropriate cases, the Inland Revenue authorities might have recourse to a plea of equity where the legal claim had failed?

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lieut.-Colonel Colville)

I presume that the hon. Member is referring to the German Taxes Law of 1934 which provides in its first section that the taxation laws shall be interpreted in the light of National-Socialist views. My right hon. Friend does not think that any provision of the kind proposed by the hon. Member would be consistent with the principle of Parliamentary control of taxation, nor can he agree with the hon. Member's suggestion that the Legislature is not able effectively to deal with avoidance.

Mr. Thurtle

Does not the right hon. and gallant Gentleman think that this is the only really effective way of stopping tax evasion?

Mr. Macquisten

Is it not lamentable that a member of the Socialist party should ask that we should be guided by a totalitarian State?

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