Mr. T. THOMSONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in the Annual Report of the Inland Revenue Commissioners, the figures given in respect of Inhabited House Duty refer to numbers of separate tenements or to separate buildings, which may contain two or more tenements?
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§ Sir J. BAIRDThe numbers of assessments to Inhabited House Duty, contained in the Annual Reports of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, represent the number of charges made to that duty. The duty is a very old one, and the law governing the question of the subjects to be included in a separate charge is very complex; but, if I have rightly understood what the hon. Member moans to convey by the terms buildings and tenements, then, subject to the limits of liability for Inhabited House Duty, it would be true to say that the number of charges would exceed the number of buildings normally used as dwelling-houses and be less than the number of tenements, though in what proportion it would be impossible to ascertain.