§ 58. Rear-Admiral Beamishasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been drawn to a method of tax evasion with Surtax payers and charitable organisations as participants, whereby the Revenue can be deprived of large annual sums and the evaders can be large gainers; and what he proposes to do to prevent this evasion?
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Kingsley Wood)I am not aware of any actual instance of the type of transaction which I understand my hon. and gallant Friend to have in mind, but any such scheme will certainly receive my close attention and I shall be glad to receive particulars of any case in which it has been put into practical operation. I should not hesitate to propose, should the need arise, that legislation designed to check evasion should be applied with retrospective effect.
§ Rear-Admiral BeamishDo I understand that the Chancellor's powers at the present time are sufficient to prevent such evasion, or not?
§ Sir K. WoodI should have to see the case which my hon. and gallant Friend has in mind before replying to that question.