Works of Arts (Hansard, 30 June 1995)

§ Mr. Gordon Prentice
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 20 June,Official Report, column 149, what would be the total liability for inheritance tax or capital transfer tax for the owners of chattels as listed for each year since 1987 if they were to lose their conditional exemption. [30654]

§ Sir George Young
On loss of conditional exemption, tax is charged on the chattels valued at the time the exemption comes to an end. It is not possible to establish the current value of all conditionally exempt chattels and therefore the information requested is not available.

§ Mr. Prentice
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 20 June,Official Report, column 149, what estimate he has made of the number of members of the public who have made appointments to 832W view works of art owned by persons who have been granted conditional exemption from inheritance tax or capital transfer tax in each year since 1987. [30653]

§ Sir George Young
No such estimate has been made.

§ Mr. Prentice
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 20 June,Official Report, column 149, if he will make it his policy to collect information on the number of members of the public who have exercised their right to require owners of chattels conditionally exempt from inheritance tax or capital transfer tax to allow viewing of these works of art; and if he will make a statement. [30646]

§ Sir George Young
No. The current arrangements are designed to ensure that qualifying objects are preserved and public access is available, and, for items not on general public display, that information can be obtained by the public on what has been conditionally exempted and how to arrange viewing. There is no statutory power to require owners to keep statistics of the number of people exercising their right to view conditionally exempt chattels.

§ Mr. Prentice
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the total number of owners of chattels that are conditionally exempt from inheritance tax or capital transfer tax and can be viewed by appointment. [31037]

§ Sir George Young
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 9 June,Official Report, column 940.