Major NEWMANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether ha can ascertain the gross amount of Income Tax under Schedules C and D which in the past financial year would have been payable by co-operative societies who, under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act are exempt, on the supposition that a co-operative wholesale society and a retail dealer were placed on the same footing as regards liability to tax?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINIn order to frame any answer to my hon and gallant Friend's question I should have to assume that rebates given by co-operative 927W societies to members ought to be profits within the meaning of the Income Tax Acts, and that if this assumption were good in law and enforced in practice, the societies would still continue to trade at the same prices and to give their benefits to members in the same way as at present. Both these assumptions are highly disputable and an estimate framed upon them would, I think, be useless as well as very difficult to frame.
Major NEWMANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he intends to continue, under Section 24 of the Industrial and Provident Societies' Act, the exemption from Income Tax of co-operative wholesale societies which, under the rules of their constitution, can carry on the trades and businesses of wholesale dealers, of general retail dealers, of bankers, shippers, carriers, manufacturers, merchants, cultivators of land, workers of mines, and insurers of persons and property?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe position of the co-operative societies in relation to Income Tax is a subject that falls within the scope of the inquiry by the Royal Commission on Income Tax, and I do not propose to make any change in existing law or practice in regard to it until we have that Report.