HC Deb 12 July 1939 vol 349 cc2292-3
Sir J. Simon

I beg to move, in page 26, line 12, after "the," to insert "standard period or."

I am sorry to have to confess that there is a slip in the drafting of the Bill which has only just been observed. It illustrates one of the very commonest forms of error in ancient manuscripts and indeed in modern copying, when the copyist is copying a text in which the same phrase occurs twice and, when he reproduces it, he imagines that he has already got to the second occasion when in fact he has only got to the first, and the result is that he leaves out the necessary words that ought to be repeated. Sub-section (2) says: Where a standard period or chargeable accounting period is not a period for which the accounts of a business have been made up. You are dealing with two altenatives, one the standard period, and the other the chargeable accounting period. The Sub-section goes on: and such aggregation of any such profits or losses or any apportioned part thereof shall be made, as appears necessary, to arrive at the profits arising in the. Then it ought to be "standard period or chargeable accounting period," but only "chargeable accounting period" has been printed, and "standard period or" is left out.

Mr. Pethick-Lawrence

I am still very vague as to the effect of putting the words in.

Sir J. Simon

If you have a standard period, the calendar year, 1936, then, in the case of a company which does not make up its accounts to 31st December, 1936, you will have to build your standard period up by taking the appropriate parts of two different accounts. In the same way, if you want to arrive at a chargeable accounting period and it is not the period to which the accounts are made up, the same thing would arise. This is a provision that, supposing that were so, such division and apportionment to specific periods of the profits and losses, and such aggregation of any such profits and losses, shall be made as appears necessary both for arriving at the standard period and for the purpose of arriving at the profits in the chargeable account. It is merely saying that if you have not the figure as a single figure—as a whole—and have to build it up, you shall build it up by taking the appropriate sections both before and after and putting the two together, and thus compose your single period.

Amendment agreed to.