§ Mr. EVELYN CECILasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the estimated yield in the current year of the Increment Value Duty, the Undeveloped Land Duty, and the Reversion Duty, respectively; and what is the estimated cost of the Land Valuation Department engaged in assessing and collecting these duties?
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§ Mr. BONAR LAWThe estimated yield for the current year of the Increment Value Duty is £110,000, and of the Reversion Duty £25,000. As a result of decisions in the. Courts, the assessment and collection of the Undeveloped Land Duty is at present suspended, and also in some measure that of the Reversion Duty. The estimated cost of the Inland Revenue Land Valuation Office for the current year is £363,500, including a sum of about £100,000 in respect of the salaries of men serving with His Majesty's Forces. I would remind the right hon. Member that the staff of that Department is also engaged upon important work for the Board of Agriculture and other Departments as well as in connection with Death Duties.
§ Mr. CECILasked what has been the aggregate yield up to 31st March, 1918, of the Increment Value Duty, the Undeveloped Land Duty, and the Reversion Duty, respectively, from the date at which they were first imposed; and what has been the aggregate cost of the Land Valuation Department, established to assess and collect those duties, from the date of its establishment?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThe aggregate yield of the duties in question up to 31st March. 1918, is as follows:
Increment Value Duty, £321,917.
Undeveloped Land Duty (in abeyance since February, 1914), £411,959.
Reversion Duty (partially in abeyance since February, 1914), £223,569.
The aggregate cost of the Inland Revenue Land Valuation Office—inclusive of expenditure charged on other Votes—during the same period was approximately £3,858,000, but the right hon. Member is, of course, aware that only a relatively small part of this expenditure is attributable to the assessment of the duties referred to.
§ Mr. CECILasked how much of the sum of £700,000 set down in the Budget statement under the head of Land Value Duties is estimated to be received from Mineral Rights Duty, and how much for the three Duties strictly concerned with land values as distinct from profits on the working of minerals; and whether, for the better information of the public, he will in future statements issued from the Treasury to Parliament or the Press group the revenue obtained by taxing the profits derived from the working of minerals with 548W the revenue from Income Tax, and group the revenue obtained from the excess profits derived from the working of minerals with the revenue from Excess Profits Duty, leaving the revenue derived from the duties levied upon land values to be stated separately?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThe estimated yield for the current year of the Mineral Rights Duty and the Excess Mineral Rights Duty is £565,000, and of the remaining Land Values Duties £135,000. The two first-named duties are classed as Land Values Duties in accordance with the statutes imposing them.