§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total number of individual businessmen in trade and the professions in 1963; how many of them showed a declared net true income of less than £250 per year, £250 to £500 per year, and £500 to £1,000 per year, respectively; and whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the comparable figures for each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. DiamondThe latest available figures of assessments on trading profits and professional earnings are for 1961–62 and they relate broadly speaking to the earnings in 1960. The total number of assessments in that year was 1,524,900 and of these the number of cases where the net true income assessed was less than £250 was 428,500 and between £250 and £500 423,400 and between £500 and £1,000 458,800. The figures of net true income are after deduction of capital 45W allowances. I would remind my hon. Friend that some of these assessments are on subsidiary earnings and some are for only part of a year, while they exclude all income of the taxpayer from any other source. Comparable figures are only available for the two previous years and are published in Table 42 of the 105th Annual Report of the Board of Inland Revenue (Cmnd. 1598) and Table 43 of the next Report (Cmnd. 1906).