§ Mr. Trotterasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Inland Revenue will seek to establish the extent to which the official allowances of the mayors and chairmen of the new local authorities are not spent on official entertaining and expenses so that they may be assessed to tax on any surplus.
§ Dr. Gilbert,pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 11th July 1974], gave the following information:—
VALUE OF PRODUCTION PER HEAD OF POPULATION (£ sterling 1960 1965 1970 1972 Industrial (1) United Kingdom (2) … 207 267 337 404 France (3) (4) … … 229 350 581 665 Germany (5) … … 253 381 704 850 Sweden (6) … … 252 381 611 732 Primary (7) United Kingdom (2) … 17 19 23 28 France (4) (8) … … 45 54 73 89 Germany (5) … … 27 30 40 48 Sweden (6) … … 48 59 68 76 Note
(1) Manufacturing, mining and quarrying, gas, electricity, water and construction.
(2) Valued at factor cost.
(3) Includes fishing, excludes the production of wine.
(4) Valued at producers' values.
(5) Valued at producers' values (including import duties and deductible VAT on capital goods).
(6) Valued at basic values.
(7) Agriculture, forestry and fishing only.
(8) Excludes fishing, includes the production of wine
Sources:
OECD National Accounts 1960–1971 and returns from member countries.
148WUnder the law those allowances are payable for the purposes of enabling the recipient to meet the expenses of his office. There will be no tax liability where the inspector of taxes is satisfied that the allowances are used for this purpose.