§ Mr. A. M. SAMUELasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether under Clause 21 of the Finance Act, 1922, the amount of Super-tax payable if a company unreasonably refrains from distributing its profits by way of dividend may be less than the sum of the Corporation Profits Tax and Super-tax that would be payable if the company distributed substantially the whole of its profits by way of dividend; and whether he proposes to repair this flaw in the working of Clause 21 of the Act in question, seeing that the Clause may operate to encourage in some cases the practice that the Clause itself declares textually it is enacted to prevent?
§ Mr. BALDWINI would remind my hon. Friend that this Section does not-become operative until the year 1923–24. I see no reason to anticipate in any normal case the result foreshadowed in the question, and I do not propose to take any action at the present moment, but the matter will be borne in mind in the actual working of the new provision.