§ Sir K. Pickthornasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the form and 22W date of the concession permitting the spreading for Surtax purposes of income received from Departments in chronologically uneven and irregular amounts.
§ Sir E. BoyleSection 238 of the Income Tax Act, 1952 (originally enacted as Section 34, Finance Act, 1927) contains provisions under which a Surtax payer can claim a measure of Surtax relief if he shows that, in consequence of the provisions of the Income Tax Acts which require certain income from which Income Tax is deductible at source to be treated for Surtax purposes as income of the year in which it is receivable, the income from any assets, as computed for Surtax purposes for the year in question, represents more than a full year's income as computed on an accruing basis, and that consequently the Surtax payable by him for that year is more than 5 per cent. above what it would have been if the amount of one year's income only on an accruing basis had been taken into account for that year. Section 238 does not apply to income apportioned under Chapter III of Part IX of the Income Tax Act, 1952 (previously Section 21 of the Finance Act, 1922, as amended) to members of companies under the control of five or fewer persons; but in the exceptional circumstances created by the compensation provisions of the Coal Industry Nationalisation Acts relief on the lines of the Section was extended to "interim income" paid to former colliery companies under those Acts which was so apportioned.