§ Mr. BRIGGSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that, by reason of the reluctance of an employing company to take advantage of the right of recovery from individual servants of Excess Profits Duty assessed in respect of such increases of remuneration as may have been disallowed either in full or in part, which reluctance is attributable to the desire of the company to honour its engagements with its servants, the State has actually been paid in Excess Profits Duty a sum bearing a higher proportion to the profits made than is provided by the provisions of the Finance Acts relating to Excess Profits Duty; and whether he proposes to continue a practice which results in such inequality of taxation?
§ Mr. BALDWINProvision was made by Parliament in the Finance Act, 1916, enabling a company, if it so desired, to recover from a director or manager the Excess Profits Duty charged in respect of any increased remuneration paid to him, which had been disallowed as a deduction in computing liability to that duty. It is obvious, therefore, that Parliament contemplated the taxation of increased 637W remuneration paid to a director or manager, and I cannot agree to the suggestion implied in my hon. Friend's question, that the State is taking a higher rate of tax than the law requires, merely because a company refrains from exercising its statutory right of recovery.