HC Deb 16 February 1971 vol 811 cc1595-6
17. Mr. Deakins

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he intends to propose a wealth tax in the forthcoming Budget.

Mr. Maurice Macmillan

I cannot anticipate my right hon. Friend's Budget statement.

Mr. Deakins

Will the hon. Gentleman use his undoubted influence with his right hon. Friend to put this forward as a serious proposition for the Budget, not only as a revenue raiser but as a means of ensuring the essential pre-conditions for a socially just prices and incomes policy?

Mr. Macmillan

I am not sure whether my transmission of the hon. Gentleman's recommendation, coming from the source that it does, would necessarily carry much weight with my right hon. Friend.

Sir B. Rhys Williams

Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that the introduction of a highly complex new tax in the forthcoming Budget would finally almost certainly break the back of the Inland Revenue?

Mr. Macmillan

I think perhaps that a characteristic of some of the suggestions put forward in these matters has been to ignore the extent to which they increase the work load particularly of the Inland Revenue.