§ Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total yield of Estate Duty and the amount thereof attributable to each of the rates then current in the financial years 1959–60, 1960–61, 1961–62; and the 134W to involve both double- and under-counting because of conceptual and statistical difficulties.
amount by which these totals would have been reduced if the lowest rate then current had been applied to estates or parts of estates consisting of, first, interests in partnerships; secondly, preference shares in private companies; thirdly, ordinary shares in all private 135W companies, in all private companies with an authorised capital of £1,000,000 or less, and in all privates companies with an authorised capital of £500,000 or less, respectively.
§ Mr. BarberThe estimated analysis by rates of duty of the net receipt of Estate Duty in 1959–60 and 1960–61 asked for in the firts part of the Question is given in the 104th Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue (Cmnd. 1598) in Table 125. The corresponding figures for 1961–62 are not yet available.
The Estate Duty statistics do not distinguish the categories of assets described in the remainder of the Question. The nearest comparable categories for which figures are available are:
- (1) Trade, business and professional assets, plus partnership property not allocated under other headings.
- (2) unquoted preference shares and debentures in British companies.
- (3) Unquoted ordinary shares in British companies.
On the assumption that my hon. Friend wishes to know how much the yield of Estate Duty would have been reduced if these classes of property had been wholly charged to duty at 1 per cent., irrespective of their value, without aggregation with other property in the estates for the purpose of determining the rate of duty on that other property, the estimated loss of duty in 1960–61 would have been (i) £7 million, (ii) £13 million, and (iii) £23 million respectively on these three classes of property. The records for 1959–60 do not enable such an estimate to be made for that year, and the figures for 1961–62 are not yet available.
§ Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the estimated yield from Estate Duty for the financial year 1962–63 and the amounts thereof attributable to each of the rates in force.
§ Mr. Barber£264½ million in total, but no estimate has been made of its allocation to the different rates of duty.