Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill. – in the House of Commons am ar 7 Gorffennaf 1937.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is asking me a question. I was asking him one. If that is his statement, then it undermines the argument of the Attorney-General. The other argument of the Attorney-General was the argument that there might be difficulties, and the suggestion was made that this proposal would mean a bonus to those whose income is below the Income Tax level. There would not be nearly so much difficulty as is suggested. I have never had to make a claim for return of Income Tax on my own account, but some years ago I was an official of an educational body and it fell to my lot regularly to make claims for return of Income Tax. There was no difficulty about it. The Income Tax was deducted at the source and the organisation was not, as is. the case of many individuals, subject to Income Tax. All that I had to do was to fill in the form and in due course the Income Tax was returned, even up to three years back pay. If that is the case with regard to Income Tax, where would the difficulty arise if a similar claim is made in respect of National Defence Contribution by people who are not liable to Income Tax? It would not mean a bonus. It would simply mean that they would have returned to them the amount which they bad paid on the original demand.