§ Mr. LESLIE SCOTTasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer in regard to Excess Profits Duty, whether it is intended to be provided by the Finance (No.3) Bill that where any person, firm, or company carries on business in more than one Income Tax district it shall be lawful to deduct from the excess profits of one such 1483W business the loss (if any) of such other business on the same principle as is applicable to ordinary Income Tax, as, for instance, where two separate businesses are carried on, one in Liverpool and the other in Manchester?
§ Mr. McKENNAWhere for Income Tax purposes there are two distinct businesses such as are in law separately assessable a loss in one business can be set off against a profit in the other, and this principle will be applied in the case of the Excess Profits Duty. I may, however, point out that businesses are not necessarily distinct, because different branches are carried on in different localities; the businesses have to belong to a different class.