Sir Isaac Pitman: I was referring to the registration of companies, not in London, but elsewhere. It was only in regard to this development and its effect upon a large and important part of London's commercial life.
Sir Isaac Pitman: May I give the Chancellor the answer? The real answer is that the units become more manageable. By ploughing back, one gets, say, ten times the capitalisation with £100 shares, and, as there are few people who can spend £1,000, it is a good thing to make it a more manageable and more marketable unit.
Sir Isaac Pitman: Might I put to the Chancellor this point, which I think, with respect, is more important? There is no difference between a technical improvement in the market, in some news connected, say, with the assaying of the ore in a particular mine, and the technical situation which arises from a decision to do a capitalisation of this kind. It shows the prospects of a company are good, and the price...
Sir Isaac Pitman: I would like to ask a question. It does not fall upon the debenture holder, but on the ordinary shareholder. If that is so, why does the hon. Gentleman maintain that it is not a tax on enterprise? It is the ordinary shareholder who is the enterpriser. and not the debenture holder.
Sir Isaac Pitman: Surely, enterprise in itself means the launching of capital? A debenture is launched with all the security behind it, and with the ordinary shareholder taking the real risk Surely, that is the enterprise?
Sir Isaac Pitman: Will the hon. Gentleman give some figures of cases where the recipients of the bonus shares have made a capital profit out of them?
Sir Isaac Pitman: The hon. Gentleman has not answered the question I put to him a few moments ago as to whether profits were being made. A person does not make a profit until he sells the shares. The hon. Gentleman's first statement was that in his experience shares were sold, but in my experience it is the opposite—the shareholder continues to hold the bonus shares as well as the original shares.
Sir Isaac Pitman: The hon. Member for Rotherhithe (Mr. Mellish) gave a most interesting and sincere speech. I hope however that he will realise that we on our side are equally sincere. We stand just as much for the working man in our constituencies as hon. Members opposite. By and large, I am just as interested in the Budget as it affects the welfare of the nation as a whole as any hon. Member opposite, and...
Sir Isaac Pitman: Would the Chancellor before he leaves that point clear up the question of co-partnership shares issued to workpeople. It seems to me—
Sir Isaac Pitman: It was said that it could not be raised in Committee.
Sir Isaac Pitman: I beg to move, in page 8, line 6, after "words," to insert: 'seven hundred and fifty pound were substituted for the words 'five hundred pounds,' the words. This Amendment does not go contrary to the point which the Chancellor of the Exchequer made in relation to the last Amendment, because in this the rate of the fraction remains the same. It is just that the ceiling after which the relief...
Sir Isaac Pitman: The point in question is that the relief which is given is to treat the income of old people as if it was earned income whether it is a pension income or an investment income. The ceiling for that is at present £500. The ceiling for earned income is £1,500. The figures are rather confusing, because we are not comparing like with like. For earned income the relief is one-sixth up to £250,...
Sir Isaac Pitman: The hon. and gallant Member for North Portsmouth (Major Bruce) has been an assiduous reader of the "Investors' Chronicle" and he has given us many examples of something which I think is clearly irrelevant. He is a very knowledgeable man in these matters, but he rather reminds me of the man who tasted whisky and soda and found it intoxicating, who tasted brandy and soda water and found it...
Sir Isaac Pitman: Before the hon. Member sits down, will he say whether the difference between the debenture holder and the note holder, on the one hand, and the entrepreneur, on the other, is not that the debenture and note holders are somnolent rentiers, whereas the equity shareholder is the lively risk taker?
Sir Isaac Pitman: If the Chancellor is aiming this personally at me, I would ask him to accept my assurance that there has in the case of our company been no such "substantially increased dividends."
Sir Isaac Pitman: Made in 1922
Sir Isaac Pitman: I beg to move, in page 24, line 1, at the beginning, to insert: (1) Where any shares of a company are held by employees of that company under a co-partnership scheme, profits tax shall not be payable on that proportion of the company's profits which the co-partnership issued capital bears to the total issued capital. This subject of the treatment and distribution of co-partnership shares is...
Sir Isaac Pitman: If the hon. and learned Solicitor-General will allow me to justify that, I would say that the essential difference Between our proposal and the wider expansion which he is making is that, in essence, the co-partnership scheme is something which is administered from the centre, whereas the other—and there is a clear line of distinction—is a purely fortuitous piece of investment by the...
Sir Isaac Pitman: May I make one point which may help us to advance in this case? It arises out of the valuation made by the Inland Revenue in regard to Estate Duty on shares not quoted on the Stock Exchange where it is a matter of guesswork which can neither he settled in advance of the facts nor after the facts, because it is an issue of judgment. The point we are trying to make from this side is that the...
Sir Isaac Pitman: I do not know to what extent it is possible to deal with the hon. Member's speech. It shows an abysmal ignorance of the true situation. There are many companies in this country which have started off with a purely nominal capital and many have financed their expansion from some other source than share capital. The amount of real capital employed in a company very often bears ultimately no...