§ 10. Mr. Warbeyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent instructions have been issued to district tax inspectors to reassess the Income Tax liability of persons with small savings in co-operative societies and trustee savings banks, going back up to 20 years, with a view to collecting small amounts of tax due on interest receipts.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterNone, Sir.
§ Mr. WarbeyIs not the right hon. Gentleman aware that hundreds of small 545 savers are being grilled by tax inspectors with a view to recovering a few £s or shillings of tax said to be due on interest receipts which most of these people innocently believed to be not liable to tax? Could not the overworked Inland Revenue staffs be more effectively, usefully and economically employed on other activities?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI do not think that "grilled" is a fair description of public servants who are doing the duty laid on them by Parliament. I understand there has been some increase in the number of requests for this sort of payment resulting, not as the hon. Gentleman suggests from any specific instruction, but from the fact that the bodies paying the interest in their returns have shown an increased number of these cases.