§ Mr. Dickensasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the yield to the public revenue of exempting all estates of £40,000 and below from Estate Duty and making fortunes above that figure subject to duty at 100 per cent.
§ Mr. Harold LeverThe effect on the Exchequer might be somewhere between an additional yield of £250 million if the present distribution of wealth was unaffected and a cost of similar size if most fortunes in excess of £40,000 were transferred to younger people. Whether the action proposed would lead to a gain or loss in the total duty collected and of what size is a matter for conjecture rather than estimation.