Mr. GEORGE LLOYDasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware 2668W that the surveyor of taxes at Guildford, in March, 1913, sent to a taxpayer in his district the customary printed form calling for a return of profits subject to payment of Income Tax under Schedule D, forwarding at the same time a manuscript circular, which had first to be returned because it was illegible, and which was described by the surveyor as intended to assist the taxpayer in computing the profits subject to taxation; whether he is aware that this circular contained no explicit statement that any allowance might be made for the proportion of the annual value of the house, chargeable under Schedule A, corresponding to the period for which the house was let furnished, but did contain a footnote to the effect that no allowance could be made for Income or Property Tax; that the surveyor, in a letter sent in March, again asserted that no deduction could be made for Income or Property Tax and, when doing so, did not acid that any allowance might be made on account of a proportional part of the annual value, in pursuance of which precisely the Property Tax, which was the subject of the taxpayer's inquiry, is levied; that the taxpayer thereupon sent a return, in which no claim was made in respect of a proportional part either of the annual value or of the Property Tax, which is the counterpart of the annual value; that the surveyor intimated that the sum, as computed in the return, which had been filled up with his guidance as aforesaid, would be levied, and, in spite of the previous correspondence, omitted still to inform the taxpayer that an allowance was admissible in respect of the annual value or to inform him that, the annual value corresponded to the Property Tax; whether he is aware that the taxpayer subsequently ascertained that the surveyor had not allowed the legal deduction and obtained repayment from the Board of Inland Revenue; will he say to what part of the surveyor's conduct the expression of regret referred; and whether, in order to avoid similar occurrences in future, the Treasury will cause printed comprehensive directions to be circulated, in terms approved by the Board of Inland Revenue and not left to the discretion of individual surveyors, for the adequate guidance of taxpayers called upon to make returns of such profits under Schedule D of the Income Tax Acts?
§ Mr. MASTERMANI would refer the hon. Member to my answer of the 1st instant to a question by him on the same subject. I had considered all the circum- 2669W stances of the case at the time of that answer and I have nothing to add except as regards the last part of the present question, that the existing arrangements are in my opinion adequate.