Mr. TYSON WILSONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether a single man who is a householder and whose mother acts as housekeeper for him is entitled to exemption from Income Tax under the provisions of Section 27 (2) of the Finance Act, 1919?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe Income Tax relief afforded by Section (2) of the Finance Act, 1919, is applicable to widowers only. Section 21 (I) of that Act provides for relief—subject to the prescribed conditions—to an unmarried person whose mother is maintained by him and living with him for the purpose of having the charge and care of any brother or sister of this in respect of whom the Income Tax relief for children is given. As regards the conditions governing the general Income Tax relief in respect of dependent relatives incapacitated by old age or infirmity, I would refer the hon. Member to the provisions of Section 13 of the Income Tax Act, 1918.
§ Earl WINTERTONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if his attention has been called to the hardship caused to widowers of small means who cannot obtain the assistance of a relative to act as their housekeeper and cannot therefore claim the abatement of Income Tax under Subsection (2), Section 27, of the Finance Act, 1918; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe point which my Noble Friend raises w as fully con-48W sidered when the Sub-section in question was before the House on 23rd July last, and the relief allowed to widowers in respect of their housekeepers was confined to cases in which the housekeeper is a female relative of the widower or of his deceased wife.