HC Deb 04 July 1922 vol 156 cc206-7W
Mr. LYLE

ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the £64,000,000 sterling of unpaid Income Tax is owing mainly by small or by large Income Tax payers; whether the same measure of consideration for temporary financial stringency is shown to the former as to the latter; and whether instructions to that effect will be given in connection with the demand notes just issued for the second payments this year?

Sir R. HORNE

No information is available on the first part of the question without detailed inquiry, which I could not authorise on account of the expenditure of time and labour which would be involved. My hon. Friend may rest assured that consideration is shown impartially to all classes of taxpayers who are for the moment financially embarrassed, and that it will be shown, as regards payments due on the 1st July, in the same manner as it has been shown as regards the payments due on the 1st January last.

Sir A. HOLBROOK

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will consider a revision of the system under which the full amount of Income Tax is deducted monthly from the pay of junior officers, though the majority are not liable to pay 2s. 6d. in the £; and, having regard to the delay and expense occasioned in the recovery of over payment of tax, whether he will relieve young officers, especially those serving abroad, from this incubus?

Sir R. HORNE

My hon. and gallant Friend is under a misapprehension. Income Tax is deducted from the pay of Army officers on the basis of the actual pay for the year of assessment, the amount of tax due from each officer being estimated at the beginning of the year by reference to the allowances and deductions to which he was entitled for the previous year. The tax is then deducted in equal monthly instalments, any necessary adjustments being at once made on receipt of the officer's Income Tax return for the year. I do not think there is any reason to revise this system, which has worked satisfactorily for many years, and which, with minor variations, is adopted in other Departments of State.