§ 66 and 67. Mr. Liddallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many admitted claims in 1936–37 were made by the public for repayment of Income Tax and/or Surtax and the resulting total paid back or credited to the taxpayer; whether the right to repayment, relief, or credit was notified to individual taxpayers on the initiative of the taxing authorities after tax had been paid; and whether the revenue authorities on their own initiative make these repayments, reliefs, and credits if the taxpayers overlook, avoid, or evade making the proper claims;
§ (2) whether he will give an estimate of the amount belonging to taxpayers retained in 1936–37 by the revenue authorities in respect of which they had not informed taxpayers what was due back to them for overpayment, or unclaimed reliefs, or by credit on balance; and will he, on legal and moral grounds, ensure that the revenue authorities shall take the initiative to inform individual taxpayers of over-payment or overlooked rights?
§ Sir J. SimonThe amounts of Income Tax and Surtax repaid in the year 1936–37 were £52,341,988 and £554,559 respectively. The total number of repayments in that year was 1,850,000.
Information as to the rights of the taxpayer to allowances and the like is furnished with every kind of Income Tax 581 return form, and it rests with the taxpayer to make his claim. But I may say that it is a standing instruction in the Inland Revenue Department to draw the attention of taxpayers to any reliefs to which they are clearly entitled but which they have not claimed.
§ Mr. LiddallIs not the amount which the revenue authorities wrongfully retain from the taxpayer larger than the amount which the taxpayer keeps back by evasions or avoidance?