§ Mr. R. McNEILLasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that, notwithstanding the note as to deduction from rent of the amount previously paid by tenants for Income Tax, Schedule A, which is printed on the official demand notes for Income Tax, landlords refuse to allow tenants, in cases where the tax is paid by instalments, to deduct from the next payment of rent the full amount which they are entitled to deduct for the whole year; and, in view of the fact that this practice is not in accordance with the official note referred to, whether he will have the obscurity of language of such note amended so as to make it clear what are the rights of tenants in regard to deduction of Income Tax from the rent?
Mr. YOUNGThe note appearing on the official demand notes in regard to the deduction of Income Tax, Schedule A, from rent does not, as my hon. Friend seems to suppose, mean that a tenant, having paid the first instalment only of the Schedule A tax for any year, can deduct the whole amount of the tax charged for that year on the premises which he occupies,i.e., both the first instalment which has been paid and the second which remains unpaid. If my hon Friend will refer to the terms of the note in question, which were quoted in the reply given to him on this subject on the 12th May, he will see that the landlord is only bound, subject to the conditions specified, to allow out of the next payment of rent the amount of tax which the tenant has actually paid.