§ 6.42 p.m.
§ Sir J. SimonI beg to move, page 49, line 31, at the end, to insert:
and the time within which such a notice may be given in respect of any chargeable accounting period shall be extended to six months from the end of that period or such longer time as the Commissioners of Inland Revenue may in any case allow.This Amendment carries us to a part of the Bill which proposes some minor Amendments of the National Defence Contribution. This Amendment and the three which follow have to do with the period within which a claim must be made by a parent company to bring the affairs of a subsidiary company into the same accounting period with itself for purposes of National Defence Contribution. We had that provision in the original scheme of the tax, and as we enacted it last year we provided that the parent company must exercise its option within two months after the accounting period of the subsidiary company and must give notice within those two months 1180 that it requires the profits and losses of the two concerns to be amalgamated for the purposes of the tax. Experience has shown that that is not a workable period. It may be two months after the end of the chargeable accounting period, but that is not the same thing as two months after the date when the accounts are made up, and many cases arose where the accounts of the subsidiary would not have been made up in time for this option to be exercised properly. This is a matter of machinery. It is not a question of giving anybody any advantage, except the advantage of having a time-table which is a workable and practicable one. The Amendments which follow are purely consequential.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Further Amendments made:
§ In page 50, line 11, leave out "two," and insert "six."
§ In line 12, after "Act," insert "or such longer time as the Commissioners of Inland Revenue may in any case allow."
§ In line 17, leave out "two," and insert "six."— Sir J. Simon.]