3. Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the proposal that the added value of a chattel over £1,000 which may be increased by a fall in the value of money is to be subject to the capital gains tax, why fortuitous earnings such as football pool dividends over £1,000 are to be exempt from taxation in the hands of the recipient.
§ Mr. CallaghanI would refer the hon. Gentleman to what I said on 22nd December in answer to a supplementary question from the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond).
Mr. Gresham CookeIf football pool dividends are not to be taxed, is not the position rather immoral? Is not this class legislation? Working people's sport is mainly football pools. The middle-class person buys a picture which may go up in value to over £1,000. Is it not very discriminatory legislation that the middle-class man should be taxed and the pools winner should not pay anything?
§ Mr. CallaghanThere is a definition of what is a chargeable asset, and at the moment this does not fall within it.
§ Mr. FisherCan the right hon. Gentleman explain—I think that many people are genuinely concerned about this—how he justifies the moral judgment that he has made which penalises a man who invests money in, for example, an important work of art but which seems to 4 encourage a man who probably wastes his money on football pools and tax-free gambling?
§ Mr. CallaghanI think that we get into difficult waters if we start making moral judgments about whether people waste their money when they enter football pools. We had better keep all this until we come to debate it.