§ Major Studholmeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the present practice of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in regard to instituting criminal proceedings for alleged frauds on the revenue.
§ Sir J. AndersonThe practice of the Commissioners in this matter is governed by Section 34 of the Finance Act, 1942, which makes provision for the admissibility in evidence of any disclosure made in the circumstances there set out. As the Section indicates, the Commissioners have a general power under which they can accept pecuniary settlements instead of instituting criminal proceedings in respect of fraud or wilful default alleged to have been committed by a taxpayer. They can, however, give no undertaking to a taxpayer in any such case that they will accept such a settlement and refrain from instituting criminal proceedings even if the case is one in which the taxpayer has made full confession and has given full facilities for investigation of the facts. They reserve to themselves complete discretion in all cases as to the course which they will pursue, but it is their practice to be influenced by the fact that the tax-1150W payer has made a full confession and has given full facilities for investigation into his affairs and for examination of such books, papers, documents or information as the Commissioners may consider necessary.
The above statement of the Commissioners' practice should be regarded as replacing the one made by my predecessor on the Second Reading of the Finance Bill, 1942, which has, I understand, given rise to some misapprehension.