Oral Answers to Questions — National Finance – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 8 July 1947.
Sir John Crowder
, Finchley
12:00,
8 July 1947
asked the Chancellor of the exchequer if he will consider extending the arrangement' whereby arrears of Income Tax can be set off against postwar credits for 1945–46 so as to include postwar credits for previous years.
Mr Hugh Dalton
, Bishop Auckland
No, Sir. I am afraid I cannot adopt this suggestion.
Sir John Crowder
, Finchley
Would the Chancellor consider hard cases, especially that of a constituent of mine who thought he was receiving allowances and is now being charged Income Tax on what he understood was free of tax money?
Mr Hugh Dalton
, Bishop Auckland
The difficulty is that we adopted this plan, as I explained last year, as a quite exceptional measure not on its merits, but in order to ease the heavy pressure of work in the tax office, and merely to save labour, and it would not be desirable to extend it because that would give preferential repayment of postwar credits to persons who are in arrears with their Income Tax, which, I would not wish to do.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
The Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
