§ Mr. GEORGE YOUNGERasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that letters have recently been issued by the surveyors of taxes in Glasgow to various firms and persons in that city asking for certified copies of their trading, profit and loss accounts, and balance sheets for the year ended 31st December, 1909, in order that their average liability for Schedule D assessment for the -year 1910–11 can be worked out and the figures submitted to them for approval; whether this request has been made under instructions of the Board of Inland Revenue; whether the ordinary and authorised method of obtaining returns for assessment under Schedule D is Inland Revenue Form No. 11, issued by the assessor of taxes, requiring the taxpayer to prepare, in the form prescribed, a true and correct statement of' his income chargeable for the year of assessment; whether this request is issued after the tax has been imposed by Parliament; whether a surveyor of taxes is instructed to interfere in reference to the assessment of Income Tax until after the notices of assessment have been issued by the assessors and the returns received by them; whether it is in order for a surveyor of taxes to ask for information regarding assessment for Income Tax for a financial year which has not commenced and in reference to a tax which has not been granted; whether in any case a surveyor of taxes is authorised to demand certified copies of the accounts and balance sheets before mentioned; and whether it is in order for a surveyor of taxes to make up a statement of average liability for Schedule D assessment and submit it to taxpayers for approval?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGEThe answer to the first question is in the affirmative; to the second, third, fourth and fifth, that, while the ordinary method of obtaining returns is as stated in the question, the practice referred to has been adopted by surveyors in Glasgow and elsewhere, not on the express instructions of the Board of Inland Revenue, but with their knowledge and approval as a course conducive to the convenience of both taxpayers and officials; to the sixth, in the affirmative; to the seventh, that in no case are the documents in question demanded, or authorised to be demanded; and to the- eighth, in the affirmative.
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