§ At the other end of the scale comes the Surtax. It must not be forgotten in any quarter of the Committee that the Surtax-payer suffered a 10 per cent. addition to the charge in the crisis Budget of 1931, which has never been removed —
§ Mr. Ellis SmithLike the means test.
§ Sir J. Simon—and I added a further surcharge to the Surtax this spring. The increase in standard rate for Income Tax —and the Committee appreciate, I think, that I have put up the standard rate very severely—applies, of course, to those who pay Surtax also, but I must in existing circumstances increase the Surtax charge further. I propose that the new Surtax scales should run from Is. 3d. at £2,000 to 9s. 6d. for the slices of income over £30,000. Anybody who can do the arithmetic of adding 9s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. can see the effect which these new scales will have at that level. These new scales will come into force for the Surtax payable on 1st January, 1940. By this means the Surtax will produce another £5,000,000 this year and £8,000,000 in a full year.
It is no good a Chancellor of Exchequer, in face of these fierce increases, spending time expressing sympathy or regret, but I would like to add this, because it has a practical application: I well understand, and every fair-minded man in the Committee ought to understand, how heavy, under these proposals, will be the weight of the Income Tax and Surtax which will fall due to be paid next January. Yet it is of vital importance 1371 that the proceeds of the tax should reach the Exchequer as soon as possible after that date. I am confident that we can rely on the great army of taxpayers to carry us to success in this part of the field just as we rely confidently on the Armed Forces of the Crown in the grimmer struggle which they have to face.