§ Lieut.-Colonel HURSTasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether in April, 1920, claimants for Income Tax repayments in Moss Side, Manchester, were informed that in future 437W claims would be settled locally instead of from London; whether he is aware of the great delays since experienced by such claimants in consequence of the transference of their claims on four successive occasions from one district office to another in Manchester; and whether he will now expedite the settlement of these claims?
Mr. YOUNGThe decentralisation of the work on Income Tax repayment claims was commenced on the 1st December, 1920, and under the new scheme (which was recommended by the Royal Commission on the Income Tax) the claims are dealt with locally in the offices of the inspectors of Taxes throughout the country instead of at London. When this scheme is in full working order it will enable the repayments to be materially accelerated. I regret the delay which has occurred in the particular cases to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers: it was due to the necessity which arose to reconstitute the areas of the Tax Districts in Manchester in a period of great pressure, but the Revenue authorities are making every effort to expedite the settlement of the claims in question. In this connection I would invite my hon. and gallant Friend's attention to the reply which I gave on this subject to the hon. Member for South Kensington (Sir W. Davison) on the 13th June. I am sending him a copy of that reply.