Mr. H. Wilsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the total of British Government expenditure abroad, and the separate figure for expenditure in Germany, for each year since 1951.
§ Mr. BarberFollowing are the figures:
sions published in the 103rd Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue; and whether he proposes any change of practice in regard to such property.
§ Sir E. BoyleThe object of this concession was to prevent unfairness, primarily to owner-occupiers, but also to tenants paying a small rent who were 141W not able to pass on the whole of the Schedule A tax to their landlords by deducting it from the rent. In the case of property held on a long lease, i.e., for a term exceeding fifty years, the practice hitherto has been to grant the concession in all cases and to assess in accordance with the "tone of the list".
Cases have come to notice in which property which is being let at a rent equivalent to the full annual value has been let on a long lease, with certain options to the tenant to break the lease, in order to take advantage of the concession. There is, however, no ground for any concession except to the extent that the rent payable falls short of the full annual value of the property. In future, therefore, where new annual values have to be determined for purposes of assessment under Schedule A for 1960–61 or any subsequent year, in the case of property let on a long lease, they will be determined either (a) according to the tone of the list, or (b) by reference to the rent payable and the other terms of the lease, according to whichever basis produces the higher figure. This is the same practice as is already followed in relation to property let on a short lease. In order to prevent hardship, however, in cases where a new annual value determined on basis (b) above first applies for the year 1960–61, the Schedule A tax for that year (but not the tax for subsequent years) will be reduced to the amount which would be payable if basis (a) applied.