§ Mr. LOUIS SMITHasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of the fact that, as a result of Rule 8 of Schedule A, Income Tax Act, 1918, and according to the Inland Revenue officials, a lessee of vacant leasehold property has no legal right to a reduction of tax from annual ground rent paid to a lessor, whether such lessor be the Crown or a private person, nor has a lessee a legal right to a deduction of such ground rent from his own income in arriving at his 1533W assessable income for taxation, and that as a consequence the lessee is made to pay tax on a sum in excess of his real income because the rule referred to provides that a lessor is obliged to allow deduction of such tax only on the production of a Schedule A receipt, which is impossible because on vacant property yielding no income no Income Tax is payable; and whether he will consider the desirability of introducing legislation in the coming Finance Bill to meet the specific grievance thus existing?
§ Mr. P. SNOWDENI am aware that the difficulty to which the hon. Member has drawn attention, occasionally arises. It is closely connected with the general question of deduction of tax on payment of rents, which is under consideration by the Committee engaged in codifying the Income Tax law, and I cannot undertake at present to introduce legislation specifically directed to this single point.