§ Sir G. COLLINSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it is the established practice in all cases for the Estate Duty Office to supply the local inspectors of taxes with extracts from Inland Revenue affidavits for the purpose of comparison of the assets of a deceased person with his, or her, previous Income Tax returns, or, if not in all cases, what is the method of selection and why are only selected cases singled out; whether he is aware that this practice places executors and administrators who have no complete knowledge of the deceased person's private affairs in a very difficult position and might result, owing to their lack of knowledge of essential facts, in their admitting claims for additional tax to which the Treasury is not legally entitled: whether he will give instructions to stop the practice and take such steps as will ensure that returns made during a person's lifetime should be regarded, when accepted for assessment, as final in the event of his, or her, death; whether he is aware that the right to make additional assessments for Income Tax exists within the year of assessment in which a person dies or within three years thereafter, and consequently may force a prudent executor to delay winding up an estate for nearly four years after the death, causing possible hardship to the beneficiaries; whether the Estate Duty Office supplies similar information to other Departments, and, if so, to which and for what purposes; and whether any such claims for additional tax have been made on the Public Trustee?
Mr. GUINNESSI would remind the hon. Member that both the Estate Duty and the Income Tax are under the management of the Board of Inland Revenue, who, in the exercise of their statutory duties, pay, and have always paid, regard for Income Tax purposes to any particulars of importance disclosed on Estate Duty affidavits, which are relevant to the Income Tax liabilities of deceased persons. The Public Trustee, acting as an executor, would, of course, be in the 1105W same position as any other executor as regards Income Tax liability in respect of the income of a deceased person. I cannot acquiesce in the hon. Member's views in this matter, nor am I aware of any case in which an executor has been faced with the difficulties suggested in the question. If, however, the hon. Member has any specific case in mind, I shall be pleased to look into it if he will furnish me with the necessary particulars.