Sir Isaac Pitman: Yes, but in the other column it will be found that in the proposed charge there is a nil," so that this table purports to show that that man has saved in taxation.
Sir Isaac Pitman: One shilling and three pence halfpenny.
Sir Isaac Pitman: I am sorry. I was reading the wrong column, but it actually strengthens my case, because in this table he is shown as having a saving of £ 13, whereas in point of fact he is not saving at all. Here it is on the graph. I have made a careful study of this. These tables of the Chancellor's are based on the assumption that enforced saving is a form of taxation. It says "Income Tax" at the top,...
Sir Isaac Pitman: I should not agree as regards the small man.
Sir Isaac Pitman: I think the right hon. Gentleman is unfair. I do not think any body on this side has said that the question of the return of the earned income allowances was not considered by him. What we are complaining about is that now it produces some curious results in special cases, where £1,250,000
Sir Isaac Pitman: We have not yet been told the cost of the Amendment. It may well be that the correct answer is that the right hon. Gentleman could give us both, which is what we are asking for in this Amendment.
Sir Isaac Pitman: That may be so. The record will be in HANSARD tomorrow and it will be quite clearly shown that I said that my electors would disapprove of a working man with a wage of £3 18s. 4d. paying 10s. 10d. extra tax in the year of victory when the Chancellor is getting £219 extra.
Sir Isaac Pitman: Mr. Pitman rose—
Sir Isaac Pitman: I would call the attention of the Committee to the provisions of the following Amendment on the Paper, one which has not been selected, because it does not fall within the limitation which the Chancellor has just made. In other words, it would be a very small addition indeed to the National Debt in terms of postwar credits. As between the two Amendments put down, I was in this dilemma that...
Sir Isaac Pitman: 1 should like to press for an answer to my question. I have asked
Sir Isaac Pitman: I would like to raise a point that is covered by this question of "directly or indirectly," particularly in regard to capitalisation. I would like from the Chancellor some information on this question of capitalisation of bonus shares, because bonus shares are not necessarily a means of extracting money out of a company; in fact, there is a very good case for saying that money cannot be...
Sir Isaac Pitman: May I raise some other points? I sympathise and agree entirely with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's objectives, but what I would like to know is whether we may see the draft of the prescribed undertaking which companies have got to give. Will the Chancellor bear in mind that there is a great deal in what has been said on this subject of bonus shares? I guarantee to give the Chancellor an...
Sir Isaac Pitman: Owing to the shortage of accountants, the difficulty of working out promptly the E.P.T. refunds will be very great. The suggestion made in the Budget Resolution Debate was that there might be some dishonestly conducted businesses where it was desired to delay refund, but that investigation may show that they have not been dishonestly conducted, and for a variety of reasons many people might...
Sir Isaac Pitman: I should like to read to the Solicitor-General exactly what he said on that occasion, which was that the Revenue authorities naturally wanted to get their hands at the earliest possible moment on what was due to them and that it was in the interests of the authorities to get things clear as soon as possible. His statement is the exact reverse of the situation, and it is because the...
Sir Isaac Pitman: I think part of this misunderstanding arises out of an apparent contradiction. I believe the Chancellor is right, that there has been during the war—
Sir Isaac Pitman: Those of us who travel by Underground may possibly have seen two posters. One is of a pair of hands with the figure "£10,000." The other is the picture of a man with the legend "Beware! This man will deceive you." Since reading and studying carefully this Finance Bill, I have been thinking, not of Mr. Lyle, the great magician, who does at any rate, produce a rabbit, but of the Chancellor of...
Sir Isaac Pitman: We hear a lot of this Government having got a mandate. It has not got a mandate. It has got an opportunity—a wonderful, fine opportunity. Never before has man's productive capacity been half as great. It is an opportunity, not in a decade, or even in a century, but an opportunity in a millenium. The Government could raise the standard of the man at the bottom—and without in any way...
Sir Isaac Pitman: I apologise. I was only saying that this is a bad Budget, and I imagine that a competent and qualified opinion on it would be welcome from someone outside who takes an interest in these matters. I feel that there are other points which show this lack of brain and this lack of executive capacity. There is the whole question of the Purchase Tax on efficiency. I refer to office machinery. I...
Sir Isaac Pitman: Mr. J. Pitman rose—
Sir Isaac Pitman: Mr. Pitman rose —